


Little Boy Lost

by Fanofeverything101



Series: Little Boy Lost [1]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen, Hurt Alan, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Protective Jeff, Protective brothers, Torture, Trauma, movie-verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:27:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 41,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24255100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fanofeverything101/pseuds/Fanofeverything101
Summary: *Movie-Verse* One year after the Hood invaded, Alan is training to be a Thunderbird, but his relationship with his family, isn't much better than before. After a massive fight, Alan is sent back to school where he is suddenly kidnapped by the Hood and all he can do is hope that the family he never really felt he belonged in will save him and bring him home. *Rated T for torture*
Series: Little Boy Lost [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1750855
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	1. The Fight

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Thunderbirds fandom. This fic is movie verse, as I’ve never actually seen the original show. I have watched like, one episode of the reboot, but I really love the movie. I just love how despite that it was only a movie, it managed to show Alan’s struggles with his relationships with his family, especially with the age difference. I hope you guys like the story.

_“Hello Alan.” Alan felt his blood freeze, instantly recognizing that voice. Slowly, he turned around to see the Hood standing about ten feet away from him, a half smirk on his face._

_“Surprised to see me?” The Hood asked as he took a few steps closer. Before Alan could respond though, the Hood said, “Oh Alan, you should’ve known, you will never be rid of me.”_

_With that, the Hood brought up his arm and clenched his fist. Alan immediately felt an invisible hand wrapped around his throat, squeezing it tightly. Instinctively, he lifted his hands to his neck while he struggled to breathe, though no air made to his lungs. Chest burning, his vision started to become black, the Hood’s sick smile the last thing he saw._

With a loud gasp, Alan shot up in his bed, the dark blue duvet falling off him in the process. Taking a few deep breaths, the teenager looked around the room. It was still dark, but the window showed that the sky was starting to become lighter in the distance, telling him that dawn was approaching. He turned his head to glance at clock to see that is was almost five in the morning, which meant he’d only been asleep for four hours. Little more than he had gotten over the last three weeks.

Alan let out a sigh as he turned on the bed so his legs hung over the side. Elbows on his knees, he pressed his head into his hands, wiping away the cold sweat on his forehead in the process.

Over the last few weeks, nightmares revolving around the Hood have invaded his sleep. And the closer it got to spring break, the worst they got. He had hoped that once he was home they would stop, but no such luck. Even though it was almost exactly one year since the Hood attacked the island and almost killed him, his family, and his friends, Alan still felt haunted by that day.

Knowing he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep, Alan stood up and went towards the balcony, opening the door to let the cold air in to help shake off his drowsiness, then went to change out of his PJ’s and into some sweats and a T-shirt. After that, he made his way out of the house and started running to the beach, the one place where he felt the safest and wouldn’t be disturbed by his brothers or Dad.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Alan watched the sun rise over the ocean in silence, blinking against the sudden brightness. He wasn’t exactly sure how long he had been out there, or how long he would’ve stayed there, probably all day if he could, but just over the rising sun, he saw two dark spots coming closer to the island. Squinting to get a better look, he saw that it was Thunderbird One and Two and he stared in shock. He didn’t even know that International Rescue had been called out.

Determined to find out what was going on, Alan stood up and ran back up to the house, heading straight for Mission Command, where whoever was staying on the island would coordinate with those actually out on the mission. He opened the door to find his Dad looking down at one of the screens, though he turned his head when the teenager entered the room.

“Alan, you’re up early.” Jeff stated.

“Why did I just see Thunderbird One and Two coming towards the island? Was there a call for IR? Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Alan demanded, in a worried and somewhat angry tone.

Ever since the incident with the Hood, his Dad and brothers had been letting him, as well as Tin-Tin and Fermat partake in some missions. It was only the ones that were deemed not very dangerous, but it was something. He had thought that he had been getting closer to his family, especially over the summer, but seeing that he was suddenly excluded from the mission immediately brought up those old fears and anger at being shut out from his family.

“Whoa, calm down Alan. Yes there was a call, a flood down in New Orleans. It happened late last night, you were already asleep. It wasn’t very serious, luckily, and we thought it would be best if you got some sleep.” Jeff explained, trying to keep his youngest from exploding, a little shocked by the extreme reaction he was getting from Alan.

“Is everyone okay?” Alan asked, his anger deflating as he processed his father’s words and realized that he most likely overreacting.

“Yeah, everyone is fine. Like I said, it was an easy mission.” Jeff told him. He stared at him before wondering, “Is everything okay Alan?”

Alan’s expression immediately became guarded as he said, “Yeah, everything is fine. Why wouldn’t it be?”

Jeff didn’t say anything for a moment, instead, just studied his son. There were dark circles under Alan’s eyes, proof that he wasn’t getting as much sleep as he should be, and the father had noticed that the teenager didn’t each much at mealtimes ever since he got home two days ago for spring break. He wondered what was going on, but hadn’t said anything about until now. He knew first hand what hunger and lack of sleep could make a person do or act like and given Alan’s reaction when he first came into the room, knew that it wouldn’t be good if he pushed right now.

“Okay.” Jeff replied, not wanting to accidentally start a fight with his son, then said, “It’s almost breakfast time, why don’t you head down to the kitchen and get some before everybody else gets down there.”

Alan nodded, and turned to walk out of the room while Jeff watched in silence. Not long after the youngest left, Scott came into the room.

“You boys alright?” Jeff asked, though he knew that none of them were injured.

“Yeah, we’re fine. Just came to tell you Onaha has breakfast ready.” Scott reported.

“Good, I’m starved.” Jeff responded, then decided to ask his oldest if he noticed that there was something wrong with his brother.

“Does Alan seem, I don’t know, off to you?” Jeff wondered as he stood up off the chair. Scott’s brows furrowed as he ran through his memories with the young blonde over the last few days.

“Not really. Maybe a little more quiet and tired than usual, but I just figured he was exhausted after studying and taking his midterms. He was pretty stressed about them that couple of times I talked to him while he was at school. Why, did something happen?” Scott started grow worried over the brother that he had practically raised after the death of their mother.

“I guess he saw you boys coming home on the ‘bird’s and was pretty upset that no one told him and he didn’t get to go. It was like last year, when he wasn’t allowed to help with IR. And he seems really tired, and doesn’t seem to be eating much.” Jeff informed his oldest son.

“Huh. Maybe it’s something to do with the Hood? It is the year anniversary since his attack.” Scott suggested, clenching his fist at the thought of the bald man who almost killed him and his entire family.

“Maybe. Either way, keep an eye on him. If he’s going to do more training for IR, he’s going to need to be at the top of his game.” Jeff ordered, and Scott immediately nodded.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

His Dad didn’t say anything about his behavior that morning, which Alan was extremely grateful. He had been thinking about it all day, and was embarrassed about what he said and how angry he had gotten. The blonde knew it was probably due to lack of sleep, but a part of it was still because of his relationship with his family.

Over the last year, they had somewhat gotten closer, especially with him starting to join them on missions, but not by much. His older brothers still teased him and his Dad still didn’t stop them, or really listen to him, not that Alan confided much to them anymore either.

He couldn’t tell them how he couldn’t help but fear that they would get attacked again, or how he was scared that he would mess up and be kicked off the team. Doing that would just give his brothers more ammo to use against him in their teasing and would prove that he wasn’t ready to be a Thunderbird. That was the last thing he needed. Staying silent was the best option.

“Alan, are you o-o-o alright?” Fermat asked, seeing the distant look in his best friend’s eyes. It was a common look over the last few weeks and he was getting seriously worried.

“I’m fine, why do you ask?” Alan wondered.

“Because you just crashed your car again.” Fermat told him, nodding his head at the TV screen in front of them. They had been playing video games since lunch, but Alan kept getting distracted.

“Oh, oops.” Alan muttered, then clicked ‘try again’ and restarted the race.

“That’s t-the fifth time in the last te-ten minutes.” Fermat stated.

“I’m just tired, that’s all.” Alan assured him.

“More nightmares last night?” Fermat deduced. Since he was sharing the dorm room with the teenager, he had woken up many times to Alan either gasping or screaming himself awake in the middle of the night. Alan nodded, but didn’t say anything else. Fermat was debating on pushing his friend to talk about it, but then his watch blinked and Jeff Tracy’s voice came through the comm.

_‘Alan, get upstairs to my office. Now’_

Alan and Fermat looked down at the device, then at each other, both with confused and slightly scared expressions as the adult sounded particularly angry.

“I haven’t done anything.” Alan told him, knowing that if his Dad was upset with his behavior this morning, he wouldn’t wait until now to do anything about it.

“Are you sure?” Fermat questioned. Alan thought for a moment, then a terrified look spread across his face.

“Um, remember how I got no sleep before my science midterm?” Alan asked.

“Yeah. Wait, please tell me you didn’t-”

“Fall asleep during the test and only answered one question?” Alan finished his sentence. They stared at each in silence before Fermat pointed out, “You bet-better get up there, making your Dad wait is only going to make him more an-an-an, upset.”

Alan nodded, then stood up and slowly made his way up to his father’s office, feeling like he was walking towards his death. When he started helping out with IR, his Dad made it clear that he would have to do better in school in order to keep doing that. And falling asleep in during a midterm was not doing better.

Before he was ready, he was standing in front of the office door. He took a deep breath, opened the door, and entered the room, the door closing behind him. His Dad was sitting behind the behind the desk, his expression a mixture of anger and disappointment.

“I just got off the phone with your principal Alan. Do you know what he told me?” Jeff asked, his tone making it clear he was just one wrong word from exploding in anger, much like Alan was this morning.

“That I, I failed my science midterm?” Alan answered with timid tone, keeping his head lowered in embarrassment. Maybe if his Dad saw how he was being honest and that he actually was ashamed of what happened, he might go easy on him and let him explain what happened. He knew he was wrong when his father spoke again.

“Yes. Not only did you fail, you fell asleep! How do you fall asleep in the middle of a test? I thought you knew better than that. If you stayed awake and actually tried to pass the test and failed, that would’ve been better because at least you would’ve tried! But no, you can’t even do that!” His father started yelling, getting more and more worked up with each word that came out of his mouth.

“Oh please Dad. If I had completed the test and still failed, you would’ve gotten mad with me for that too. No matter what I do, you are always mad at me for something.” Alan replied, his own voice starting to rise to yelling range.

“Because you keep messing up! How are you going to succeed in anything, let alone do something as dangerous and important as being a Thunderbird if you don’t learn how to not screw up?” His father asked.

“It was an accident! Okay? And I already talked to my science teacher after the test. He told me I could make it up after the break.” Alan tried to explain. The Thunderbird Commander though was having none of it.

“No, you will go back to Wharton’s and make it up during your break.” At the stunned look on Alan’s face, Jeff said, “Breaks are for people who earned them, and you haven’t.”

“What about my other tests? I know I did good on those, and I’m going to make up the science one. Why are you making such a big deal about this one?” Alan demanded.

“Because no son of mine is going to take such a failure lightly like this! I don’t care about the other tests, I care about this one because you messed up and are going to make it right!” Jeff yelled, standing up so he was taller than his son.

“That’s right, you never care about anything I do unless it’s a screw up, so you can have someone to yell at. Is that all I’m good for Dad?” Alan questioned, his tone a little quieter but still just as furious as before.

“That’s enough Alan!” Jeff ordered, and said in a more quieter voice, “You will go to room and pack. In the morning, one of your brother’s will take you back to school where you will study and retake the test.”

“Fine. I’d rather be anywhere than here with you.” Alan responded, then turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door as he went.


	2. The Kidnapping

As the words from the science textbook started to blurry yet again, the eighth time in five minutes, Alan let out a frustrated groan and threw his highlighter against the wall, watching as it bounced off and fall onto Fermat’s bed. Ever since he arrived back at Wharton’s yesterday, he had been studying almost nonstop, not that it really mattered. Even if he did good on the makeup test, he was sure that he wouldn’t be heading home for the rest of spring break and honestly, he didn’t really want to. He didn’t want to be anywhere near his Dad right now.

_Beep_.

Alan looked over to the corner of his desk where he had placed his cell phone, a present for his latest birthday to see he just got a text. He grabbed it and clicked on the notification, smiling when he saw that it was from Tin-Tin.

‘ _Only a few more hours then you’re done! Text me or Fermat if you need anything.’_

Tin-Tin and Fermat were the only people on Tracy Island that he had been in contact with since he left yesterday. They had been texting him randomly ever since, encouraging him as well as offering to be there for him whenever he decided to talk about what happened. So far though, he hadn’t taken them up on that offer yet.

He had been receiving some texts from his brothers, but he didn’t respond to them. He knew what would happen if he did. They would ask him if he was okay, he’d tell them how he was feeling then they would say it was his fault for getting in the mess in the first place. It’s why when Scott took him back to school, he didn’t say anything.

_“You ready to go Sprout?” Scott had asked once Alan approached Thunderbird 1 with his bags. He just shrugged and walked towards the ramp._

_“Need a hand?” Scott tried to reach for one of Alan’s bags to help him carry it up to the ‘bird, but Alan pulled away, determined not to give his brother anything to use against him, like how he was so weak or was a girl because he needed his big brother to carry his stuff._

_Without waiting for his oldest brother, Alan entered the Thunderbird, placed his bags by his chair, then sat down and buckled in, ready to get as far away from his Dad as possible. Only about a minute later, Scott came in, sat down in the pilot’s chair, and fired up his ‘bird. Soon, they were on their way back to Wharton’s._

_Scott wisely said nothing the entire trip, seeming to sense that Alan had no desire to talk to him, about anything. But that didn’t mean he didn’t keep shooting him worried or thoughtful glances throughout the flight. When they arrived at their secret platform so the Thunderbird wouldn’t be seen by any, they got in one of the cars they kept there and drove to the school._

_“You going to be okay?” Scott wondered, actually sounding concerned when the got to the school._

_“I’ll be fine.” Alan insisted with an impatient tone._

_“Okay. Call if you need anything. We’ll see you soon, okay Sprout?” Scott told him, reaching out to ruffle Alan’s mop of blonde hair, but Alan backed away._

_“Yeah, whatever.” Alan replied, then went into the dormitory without looking back._

“Still being a stick in the mud with the studying?” Alan was shaken out of the memory and turned his head to see Taylor, another teenager in his class, who was also on the track team with him, standing in the doorway.

“My Dad is already furious with me, if I fail the retake, he would bury me alive.” Alan told him, then turned his attention back to his textbook.

“At least your Dad pays attention to you. My parents didn’t even acknowledge that there was a spring break, hence, why I’m still here.” Taylor informed him.

“Sometimes, I would like it if my Dad ignored me.” Alan admitted quietly. Taylor frowned, then came over to the blonde and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“Come on Al, let’s get out of here. You need a break.” Taylor said, gently pulling on his shoulder to get him up.

“Where are we going?” Alan asked a little warily. The brunette wasn’t usually a troublemaker, but he didn’t want to risk doing anything that would get him in deeper trouble with his family.

“Just for a run. Come on.” Alan didn’t need anymore pushing. He always felt better when he was running. So, he stood up and followed Taylor out of his room and out of the school.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

“Feeling a little better?” Taylor asked between pants as he and Alan finished their fourth lap around the track in the backyard of the school.

“Yeah, a little.” Alan responded, keeping his pace even with Taylor, despite the fact he was actually faster than him.

“This is kinda boring. Let’s do the path through the woods.” Taylor suggested with a bright smile.

“Are you sure? We’re not supposed to leave schoolgrounds without supervision.” Alan reminded him.

“Oh come on. It’s spring break. Over half the staff are gone, and the ones who are here are probably already in bed. Besides, it’s not like they’d care.” Taylor pointed out. Alan couldn’t really argue with that. So, he nodded and they changed their course to take the path through the trees a few meters away.

About ten minutes later, when they had almost reached the half-way point in the path, Taylor suddenly stopped to catch his brother. Not wanting to leave his friend behind, Alan stopped too. Besides, he could use a quick rest as well.

“Maybe we should head back, it’s getting late.” Alan said. He looked down at his wrist to check the time, only to remember that he left his watch in his bedroom.

“Nah. Come on, we’re half-way done the trail. We can finish that, then you can go back to studying.” Taylor replied, then smirked as he added, “Unless of course, you’re too tired to keep up with me.”

“No, I’m not. I can kick your butt anytime, anywhere.” Alan responded with his own smirk.

“Prove it.” Taylor challenged. They both got ready to run again when Taylor stopped, and turned his head to look behind him, asking, “Did you hear something?”

“How stupid do you think I am?” Alan asked. Everyone knew that the distraction thing was the oldest trick in the book, and he was no exception, especially having grown up with four older brothers.

“No, seriously. I thought I heard something.” Hearing the seriousness in his friend’s voice, Alan slowly turned his head, keeping one eye on the path and one eye on Taylor, just in case he was just trying to get a head start. When he heard the bushes rustle though, they had his full attention.

“It’s probably just a rabbit or something.” Alan figured, knowing from running the trail multiple times over his school years. Taylor seemed satisfied with Alan’s assumption and was about to get ready to race when the rustling noise occurred again, this time though, it was louder.

The two teenagers turned their heads again and saw the silhouette of a person coming out of the trees and onto the path.

“Well that’s not a rabbit.” Alan whispered, suddenly feeling like he was in the middle of a horror movie.

“Nope. Is it the gardener? Or a teacher?” Taylor asked quietly, squinting to try and get a better look. The two watched in silence as the person started to approach them, getting more and more nervous as whoever the third person was, was just as silent as they were. Suddenly, the person placed his hand on his waist and pulled something out, something that they both recoginzed and caused fear to flood their bodies.

“Gun!” Alan yelled and they both started running down the path as fast as they could. The person with the gun however, simply followed them.

Neither of them were sure how close their chaser was behind him, and they didn’t want to risk looking behind them to see. All their thoughts were getting back to the safety of the school. However, due to the speed they were going, and the darkness, Alan missed the root of a tree the was sticking out on the path and fell to the ground with a sudden gasp.

“Alan!” Taylor cried out when he saw Alan fall. He turned to go help the blonde, but Alan waved him off, seeing that the man with the gun was still coming.

“Go! Go get help!” Alan told him. Taylor hesitated for a moment, then did what he was told.

Alan looked down to see that his knees were bloody from scraping against the pavement of the path, then looked back to see the person was actually starting to slow down, apparently noticing that he was down on the ground. The 15-year-old was about to push himself up when the man spoke.

“Hello again brat.” All of his blood froze at the sound of the gunman’s voice. Even though it had been a year, one year and two days since he heard that voice, he’d know it anywhere. Alan turned his head to see that his chaser was only a few feet away and was closing the distance with a steady pace. Mullion, the Hood’s muscle minion.

Before Alan could say or do anything, Mullion reached him, and slammed the butt of his handgun against his temple. Stars exploded across his vision before everything went black.


	3. The News

Jeff stared at the papers in front of him though his mind was as far from his work as possible, with his youngest son who was currently at Wharton’s instead of home with his family for spring break. While he still stood by his decision, that Alan should make up the test, he was starting feel like he had been too harsh on the teenager. No, he knew he was too harsh on him.

For as long as he could remember, Alan was always a trouble maker. Not like Gordon was, with his jokes and pranks that sometimes got a little out of hand. With Alan, it was bigger things, things that had a lasting effect, like starting a fire in science class. He had been hoping that he would get better, would try harder in school and his hobbies, whatever they may be, as he got older, but for the longest time, Jeff wondered if Alan would ever grow up and mature.

After the Hood’s attack though, he had gotten better. He was going better in school, and joined some more clubs, and was really doing well with his Thunderbird training, only to turn around and pull something like falling asleep during a midterm. When the Headmaster called to inform him of what had happened, all Jeff felt was anger. After all that hard work, Alan was just going to throw it away and go back to his old patterns.

Maybe sending him back was going a little far, especially when Alan told him he already arranged to retake the test after spring break, but Jeff had to make sure that Alan knew he wasn’t going to get off scot-free. The last thing the father needed was for his youngest to think that just because he was now starting his Thunderbird training that school was no longer important and he could get away with his old behaviour.

_Ring! Ring!_

Shaken from his reverie by the phone ringing, Jeff immediately grabbed it and said, “Jeff Tracey.”

_“Mr. Tracy, this Headmaster Stephens from Wharton’s Academy.”_ Jeff internally groaned, of course Alan would cause trouble during spring back while at school.

“What did Alan do? Please me tell he didn’t set fire to anything again.” Jeff questioned. After their fight two days ago, he really didn’t want to have to have another one with his youngest.

_“No, Alan has not done anything.”_ Jeff’s brows furrowed as he tried to think of a reason as to why the Headmaster would call him if Alan wasn’t in trouble. Before he could ask though, the headmaster said, _“Mr. Tracy, perhaps it would be better if you were to come to Wharton’s, so we can explain the situation.”_

“No offense Headmaster, but I would like to know what’s going on with Alan, now please.” Jeff replied, starting to get worried. He had never gotten a call like this from anyone before, especially about one of his kids.

_“Alright. Mr. Tracy, is appears that Alan was kidnapped tonight.”_

“What!” Jeff yelled in shock and fear. His yell was apparently loud enough for Scott, Virgil, and Gordon to hear because they immediately ran into the room, their faces filled with worry.

_“Another student who was staying at the school over the break came running to our Head of Security saying that a man with gun was chasing them while they were out running on our trail that goes through the woods. Security went out but they didn’t find him or the gunman, but they did find some blood. Police are here now.”_

“I’ll be right there.” Jeff responded and hung up the phone.

“Dad, what’s going?” Scott asked the question that his brothers were also about to ask. Jeff looked down at his desk as he braced himself to inform his older sons of what had just happened.

“That was the Headmaster from Alan’s school. Alan’s been abducted.”

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

“Dad’s got Thunderbird 1 ready. You done packing?” Virgil asked as he walked into Scott’s room to see him packing his suitcase.

After Scott, Virgil, and Gordon gotten over the initial shock and freak out, Jeff called John who was up on Thunderbird 5 and told him what was going on. Then he told his sons that he would be heading to Wharton’s to talk to the police and try and find Alan. The older boys immediately started demanding that they go with him, but the father reminded them that they had a responsibility to run International Rescue. After a lot of arguing, it was decided that Scott would go with their Dad while the rest stayed behind on the island.

“Yup.” Scott replied as he placed the last of his clothes in his suitcase, then closed it and zipped it shut.

“I wish Gordon and I could go with you and Dad.” Virgil said, sitting down on the bed. He and John were the first ones to succumb to the logic their Dad used on his argument. Gordon on the other hand was still arguing with their Dad about going with them last the medic saw him. Out of the five of them, Virgil and John were the most level-headed ones while Scott, Gordon, and Alan were more on the emotional side of things, though Scott could usually control it, unless it had to do with his younger brothers.

“I know. Wish you guys could do, but Dad’s right. Someone needs to keep IR running, no matter how much we don’t want to right now.” Scott reminded him. Virgil nodded, agreeing with his older brother. He then stood up and wrapped his arms around the brunette in tight embrace, which Scott was quick to return.

“Just bring him back.” The doctor told him. Scott pulled away do he could look his brother right in the eye as he said, “Don’t worry. We will.”

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Two hours later, Jeff and Scott were approaching Wharton’s Academy, just in time to see the sun rising over the school. The campus was filled with police cars and security. It took an extra ten minutes just to get into the building where the chief of police, Wharton’s head of security, and Headmaster Stephen’s were waiting for them.

“Have you found him?” Scott immediately asked once he and his Dad reached them.

“No, not yet.” The police chief answered in a serious tone.

“What exactly happened? How did this happen in the first place?” Jeff demanded. When he was looking for schools for Alan to go to after they moved to the island, he picked Wharton’s not only because of their great academics, but also because of their state of the art security.

“Alan and another student, Taylor Larson went for run late last night. While they were on the wooded trail, a man with a gun came up behind them and they started running back to the school, but Alan tripped. Taylor was going to help him get up, but Alan told him to keep going, to get help, so he did. By the time our security got out there, they were just gone.” The Headmaster responded, though it was not much different from what he told the parent only hours ago.

“How did the gunman even get onto the property?” Jeff questioned, looking at the Head of Security.

“Security is always lower during school breaks as most of the kids are gone. We mostly just keep an eye on the entrance with a few patrols around the property during the day.” The man explained.

“Have you found anything since my brother was taken?” Scott asked, trying to control his panic at not knowing where his baby brother was.

“We found tire tracks on the road on the other side of the woods. Whoever was driving started the vehicle and got out fast entire to burn the rubber. The tread of the tires though is extremely common. Same tires on most vehicles. And the road quickly hits the highway. We are looking at traffic cameras to see who was driving, but it’s a popular highway. Odds of finding the kidnapper that way is pretty slim. We will keep looking of course.” The police chief explained.

He waited until he knew that the former astronaut processed his words before he told him, “Most likely, this was done for a ransom. So as soon as they contact you, we should be able to track down their identity. If it isn’t, then it is most likely done by an enemy of yours or your family, so we will need you to make a last of anyone who could have a grudge against you.”

Jeff nodded, then let the police get back to work. While Scott went to Alan’s room to see if he could find anything, Jeff made his way to an empty classroom to make some phone calls. One to his sons back on the island, as he promised to update them as soon as possible, and another to Penny. She had connections everywhere and might be able to help find Alan sooner.

His brothers were still pretty upset that they weren’t with him and Scott to help search for their missing sibling and telling them that the police still hadn’t found him made it worse. Once he ended the call though, and went to dial Penny’s number, his phone started ringing, the call ID telling him that it was indeed the secret agent calling him.

“Penny, I was just about to call you.” Jeff told as he answered the phone. There was a slight pause before she spoke.

_“What’s wrong?”_ Penny asked, apparently hearing the worry in his voice.

“Alan was kidnapped from school last night. The police are here and are starting their search, but so far, nothing.” Jeff told her. Hearing a slight gasp on the other hand on the line, Jeff’s brows furrowed as he waited for her to respond.

_“Jeff, I was just informed that there had been a fire at the maximum prison where the Hood was being kept. He escaped, almost 36 hours ago.”_

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Alan slowly came to, his head pounding and had a painful crick in his neck. With a groan, he opened his eyes to see that he was in a dark room, a room he didn’t recognized. He lifted his head, which was against his shoulder, which explained his sore neck, and looked around the room. He was sitting on a metal chair, his hands were tied to the arms on the chair with zip-ties. He looked around to see if there was anyone around, to see if he could find out where he was, but besides a table by the door at the corner of room, it was completely empty.

Suddenly, the door opened and Alan froze as the person came in. The memory of being chased by Mullion, getting knocked him out flooded his mind as the bald man came to stand in front of him. The teenager sat back against the chair, trying to get as far away from the Hood as possible while the older man gave him a smile that sent chill’s down Alan’s spine.

“Hello Alan. Miss me?”


	4. The Plan

“What!” Jeff shouted, then asked in a quieter voice so that no one would overhear, “Why didn’t we know about this until now?”

_“I only just found out now Jeff. I asked them myself why it had taken so long for us to be notified and all they said that it took them a while to take care of the fire and then there was a riot. It took them some time before they realized the Hood was gone.”_ Penny explained, her British voice making it clear that she was just as upset about the news as the father was.

“Do you think that the Hood could’ve kidnapped Alan?” Jeff wondered, hoping that her answer was ‘no’. If it was just some random person wanting ransom money, he could handle it. He would pay any price to get his son back, no matter how big. If it was the Hood however, there was no telling what he would do to Alan.

_“I highly doubt it is a coincidence that Alan goes missing only a day after the Hood has escaped.”_ Penny replied. Jeff nodded, knowing that the aristocrat was right, but that brought out another problem.

“Penny, if it is the Hood, how are the police going to find Alan? And how are they going to arrest the Hood? And what if he reveals our identity as the Thunderbirds?” Jeff questioned in an even more hushed tone when mentioning the Thunderbirds.

_“Very good questions. I do not believe this a problem for the local police to deal with.”_ Penny stated.

“You mean it’s time to call in some favours from those higher than the FBI.” Jeff realized.

_“Being friends with the President and head of the FBI does have its perks Jeff. They are the best and we will need the best to deal with the Hood and find Alan.”_ Penny reminded the former astronaut.

“You’re right. I’ll call them.” Jeff agreed.

_“And I’ll make some call to MI6. We will find him Jeff.”_ Penny tried to assure him. It didn’t make the worry and fear that Jeff was feeling disappear though.

“I’ll talk to you soon.” Jeff said, then hung up the phone and started to dial another phone number.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Scott looked around his baby brother’s dorm room. The bed was a messy, his bag was unpacked by the dresser, and his science textbook was laying open on his desk along with pages of notes. The dark brunette walked over to the desk and looked down to see how much Alan was trying to remember for his midterm. Seeing it all now, Scott wasn’t surprise that the blonde would’ve fallen asleep during the test.

He then turned and walked over to the bed. When he sat down, Scott noticed the two pictures on the bedside table. One was of Alan, Fermat, and Tin-Tin, taken during last summer. The other one was from years ago, back when their Mom was still alive. It was of her, and all five of the boys were with her while their Dad took the photo.

The oldest Tracy son picked up that old photo and stared at it. Scott remembered that day. It was a week before their Mom died in the avalanche. He remembered everything about those weeks.

“Scott?” He looked up from the picture when Scott heard his Dad’s voice and watched as he came into the room.

“Did you call Lady P?” Scott questioned

“Yeah, I did.” Jeff replied, coming to stand in front on his oldest son and said, “Apparently, she just found out that, the Hood had escaped prison over 36 hours ago.”

Scott felt his blood freeze and his stomach clench tightly as he asked, “What? He’s the one who took Alan?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. If this was about getting a ransom, the kidnappers would’ve contacted us by now.” Jeff answered as he sat down on the bed beside Scott. Once he was sitting he added, “I called head of the FBI. Owes us a couple of favours due to IR helping them out with some stuff. And Penny’s calling her contacts at MI6. We’ll find him.”

“We better. We have to.” Scott said quietly, looking back down at the photo in his hands. Jeff stared at his son for a moment, then down at the photo that Scott had.

“You remember that day?” Jeff wondered.

“Of course I do. We had just gotten to the ski lodge. It was the first time we had gone there with Alan. First and last.” Scott said the last part with a slight painfilled and bitter tone.

“Yeah. Well, everything changed after your Mom died.” Jeff told him, looking down at his hands that he had folded in front of him.

“I know. Believe me, I know.” Scott replied, putting the photo back on the bedside table.

After their Mom’s death, their Dad through himself into his work, trying to avoid dealing with the pain of losing his wife with all the distractions his could find. Scott, being the oldest, ended up taking care of all four of his younger brothers, especially Alan. He basically became a surrogate father at only 13 years of age. As time continued to pass however, their Dad slowly came back to them, especially when they moved to the island and started International Rescue.

However, too much time had passed for Alan and their Dad. Oh, Alan and Jeff had gotten a little closer but there was this chasm between them, and it seemed to get bigger and bigger as Alan got older. Being sent to a boarding school and being excluded from the Thunderbirds didn’t help either.

“Come on, the police will soon be notified that someone else is taking over the case. We have to meet up with them.” Jeff told Scott. He patted his shoulder and stood up, heading towards the door. Scott immediately followed.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Virgil walked outside of the house towards the pool, looking for his younger brother. Their Dad had just called, letting him know what the police found. He was getting ready to go tell Gordon when their Dad called again, with even worse news. The Hood had escaped prison, which meant there was good chance he was involved with what happened to Alan. Now, Virgil had to deliver the bad news to Gordon.

The red-head had gone to the pool not long after their Dad and Scott had left, needing to do something besides standing around waiting for news. When Virgil got there though, Gordon was sitting on the edge of the pool, his feet dangling in the water while he stared at the ocean.

“Hey Gordon.” Virgil said as he crouched down beside the red-head. When he heard the medic’s voice, he turned to face him, moving so fast Virgil thought he would slip and fall into the pool.

“Any news?” Gordon asked, a hopeful expression on his face.

“Only that the Hood escaped.” Virgil revealed, and the hopeful look was quickly replaced with one of fear and anger.

“Did he take Alan?” Gordon questioned with a tone that mirrored the emotions in his eyes.

“They don’t know for sure, but it’s very likely.” Virgil answered.

“We should go join Dad and Scott. We shouldn’t be stuck out here on the island when Alan needs us!” Gordon yelled, kicking at the water as if it was the source of all his problems.

“I want to be with too, I really do. But what if a call comes through? Those people will need our help. Besides, you know Dad and Scott. If anyone will find Alan, it’ll be them and they will make sure that that person never goes near Alan again.” Virgil told him, knowing how overprotective the oldest members of the Tracy family could be, especially Scott.

“I guess.” Gordon muttered, looking down at the pool.

“Gotta go give John the update. You gonna be okay fish?” Virgil wondered.

“Not until we find Alan and bring him home.” Gordon replied. Virgil patter Gordon on the back lightly.

“Don’t worry, we will.” Virgil assured him, then stood up and went to go call his older brother who was still up in Thunderbird 5.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

“So Alan, how have you been?” The Hood questioned, looking down at his prisoner. Alan squirmed a little in his chair, testing the restraints to see if they were loose enough for him to get free. However, the zip-ties immediately cut into his skin when he did. He stayed silent though, staring straight at the bald man.

“Alright, you’re not going to answer that question, it’s no matter to me really.” The Hood said, taking a few steps closer.

“What does matter to me, is getting something that had alluded me for years. One, is revenge. My last revenge plan against your father and your family was ruined, by you, as you well know. The other, is new technology that will help restart my empire. Specifically, the technology that is the Thunderbirds. And Alan,” The Hood paused, bent down and whispered in the teenager’s ear and whispered, “You’re going to help me with both.”

Trying to hide the fact that another shudder of fear just ran through him, Alan turned his head to look at the Hood and said, “Don’t bet on it.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I am very, very, good at reading people Alan. And am very good at getting what I want.” The Hood told him. He then stood up, took a few steps away from Alan, then turned around to face him, his hand outstretched as though he was trying to reach him. A sudden pain emerged in Alan’s head and he screamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not sure who all knows about the Thunderbirds identity, but for this story, the Head of the FBI does know. Hope that doesn’t upset any fans.


	5. Underway

Alan gasped as the agonizing pain in his head finally stopped again. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since the Hood came in and started using his powers to cause massive pain in his skull to try and make him talk, but it felt like hours. Breathing hard, Alan felt the blood in his mouth start to run down his chin. In an effort to keep from screaming, he had been biting his tongue, but he had bitten so hard his teeth cut it, causing it to bleed.

Slowly, Alan lifted his head to see that the Hood was bending down, one hand resting against his head as though he was also in pain, which Alan knew was probably true. The villain had to be exhausted and in some pain given how long he had been using his powers as well as how much.

“I must admit Alan, you continue to surprise me.” The Hood revealed as he stood straight up again, slightly breathless. When Alan didn’t respond though, the bald man added, “I didn’t think you would take much convincing, given how terribly your family has been treating you.”

As he spoke, the Hood walked around behind Alan. The blonde turned his head to try and see what the man was doing. He heard a scrapping and watched as the Hood pulled a chair that was apparently behind him, and dragged it out until it was right in front of Alan, and sat down.

“I mean, it doesn’t take a genius Alan to know that you are the black sheep of the family. No matter what you do, your family doesn’t appear to accept you. They did send you back after all, for quite an unfair reason if you ask me.” The Hood stated. Alan kept himself still though he was completely surprised that the Hood appeared to know what had happened with his family and why he was at the school instead of at home.

“Do you really think you can earn their love and respect if you stay silent? Oh Alan, if you don’t have it by now, you have to know you never will. They’re your family, you shouldn’t have to earn it. Can they really be called ‘family’ if they treat as though you don’t matter?” The Hood wondered, his tone full of fake sympathy. Alan lowered his head just a little, looking down at the floor, but he still didn’t say anything.

“Tell me what I want to know Alan, and I will let you go. I’d even offer you a place in my empire, away from your family who will never love you. Just tell me what I want to know.” The Hood offered, leaning down to get a little closer to his captive.

“Never.” Alan spat. The Hood sighed and stood up.

“I’ll give you a minute to think about.” The Hood told him, then walked out of the room, leaving Alan alone.

Once he was gone, Alan resumed his struggling to get free. the zip ties quickly cut into his wrists, causing them to bleed. He stopped for a moment, looking at the restraints to see if he could find a better way to get out, but couldn’t see anything. He wasn’t getting free without some weapon or tool to cut the ties.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

John stared out the window, seeing planet Earth in front of him. It looked so small from where he was. He could see what would have been hundreds of thousands of miles shrunk down into inches and meters, but he didn’t care about that, not unless he could see Alan from where he was.

One of his screens showed the news broadcast from eastern U.S., alerting everyone that a dangerous criminal known as the Hood not only escaped a maximum-security prison in the United Kingdom, but that he was believed to be in the U.S. and taken a teenager, Alan Tracy, hostage.

Virgil had contacted him hours ago, informing them of how there was no leads, but the Hood had escaped from prison and was most likely the reason why Alan was missing. The fact that their father hadn’t been contacted for a ransom demand only solidified in every Tracy family member’s mind.

Since then though, there was nothing. Normally, John liked the silence. It was peaceful, allowed him to work without any distractions, but now, he hated it. At least if there was a mayday call for International Rescue, he would have something to do, something to keep his brain from thinking of the things that could be happening to his baby brother, but there was still nothing. No call, not distress signal, no nothing.

Sick of waiting, John instead got to work on tracking the media, the internet, anything that could give any type of lead as to where Alan was, or at least, where the Hood was. He might have strange telekinetic powers, but he wasn’t invisible, nor was he perfect. He was bound to slip up, if he hadn’t already, and John was determined to not just be sitting useless in space.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

“Why do you even bother asking the little brat to help you? Why not just kill and leave his body out for the Tracy family to find? That will make them pay for what they’ve done.” Mullion questioned, seemingly frustrated at his boss’s way of doing handling the situation.

The two were currently in another room of the abandoned building where they had been staying ever since they escaped and captured Alan.

“It’s quite simple really. I need the information of how the Thunderbird machinery works. And if Alan does give it to me, what better way is there to torture Jeff Tracy then to reveal that his own son despises him so much that he would betray him and his family in such a manner.” The Hood explained, an excited expression on his face.

“But what makes you think that the kid knows anything about how those machines work? He’s just a stupid, stubborn, teenager. And how do you know that he’ll just help you?” Mullion quickly pointed out the flaws he saw with the older man’s plan.

“Mullion, Alan grew up under the shadow of his older brothers and famous father, wanting to join them in the spotlight. He grew up with that technology all around him as his father started International Rescue. He would’ve learned all he could to not only impress his family, but also to prepare himself for when it was his turn to join their team. And if he doesn’t willingly tell us, well, then we’ll just have to, _persuade_ him to change his mind.” With that last sentence, the Hood gave Mullion a type of smile that told the taller man exactly what kind of, _persuasion,_ they would be using should their prisoner refuse to cooperate.

“Sir!” Transom called out as she entered the room. She had escaped with Mullion and the Hood, but had kept her presence hidden as she was supposed to make sure that no one was on their trail, “You need to see this.”

She picked up a remote that was sitting on the desk and turned on the TV that was in the corner of the room. Immediately, a news alert appeared, an amber alert, for Alan Tracy. As the announcer explained how he was taken from his school the night before, a picture of the Hood replaced Alan’s and was said to be involved and to be considered extremely dangerous and to call the number below if anyone had any information.

“That makes things a little more difficult.” The Hood said, “But no matter. As long as you two stay under the radar, they will never find us.”

He took the remote from Transom and turned off the screen before looking at Mullion.

“Why don’t you go see if our guest if ready to talk.” The Hood suggested.

“And if he isn’t?” Mullion asked.

“Well then, you can start trying to, _persuade_ , him.” The Hood told him. Mullion smiled and made his way to the door. As he passed his boss however, the bald man grabbed his arm, stopping him.

“Just don’t kill him. And make sure he can still talk when you’re done.” Mullion nodded, agreeing to the Hood’s conditions, and continued to make his over to the room where they were keeping Alan.


	6. Tension

Jeff held the phone to his hear as he listened to Andrew Cardinal, the head of the FBI’s voice on the other end. After he had called him and informed him of what had happened to Alan, the Director promised to have his best agents start investigating. Jeff and Scott then jumped on one of their private planes and flew to D.C. to meet with him in person.

By the time they got there, and had given Cardinal all the information about what happened, and their history with the Hood, it was almost midnight. As there wasn’t anything that could be down at that hour and being reassured that finding Alan was the FBI’s top priority, Jeff and Scott headed to the nearest hotel and booked a room for the night. It was now almost 7 in the morning.

_“We have found evidence that the Hood is indeed in America, or was about 50 hours ago. Security cameras have him arriving in Washington D.C. by ship. A dark SUV picked him up. The licence plate revealed that it was reported stolen. We are tracking it now, but so far, nothing shows that he was anywhere near Alan’s school.”_ Cardinal informed the father.

“The Hood once had an entire illegal empire in Malaysia as well as contacts all over the world. He could’ve easily had one of them kidnap Alan.” Jeff reminded the Director.

_“Very true. We are looking to see if any of his old contacts or accomplices are in the area or were near the school. However, there are a lot of them, and there are most likely some that we’ve never been able to identify. It was one of the reasons that it was practically impossible to arrest him.”_ Cardinal explained.

“Is there anything we, Scott and I, to help speed things up? To help find my son?” Jeff asked, desperation seeping into his voice. Alan had only been taken a little over 24 hours ago and Jeff already felt like the fear and worry was eating him alive. He couldn’t imagine the possibility that they might never find his son.

_“Unfortunately no. I’m sorry Jeff, but right now, there isn’t anything to do but wait to see what we find. I promise, we have our best people working on it. We will find him Jeff.”_ Cardinal assured him.

“Keep me in the loop.” Jeff told him.

_“I will.”_ The Director promised, and they both hung up. Jeff put his phone in his pocket and turned away from the window, stopping when he saw Scott standing by the couch in the main room of their suite, changed into a fresh pair of clothes, wet hair, towel in hand. The former astronaut had waited until Scott had jumped into the shower before he called the Director, but he hadn’t realized that he had come out.

“Still haven’t found him?” Scott wondered, though he knew from the look on his Dad’s face what the answer was. Jeff shook his head.

“I’m going to give Penny a call, see if MI6 has made any headway.” Jeff told him. Scott nodded, letting him know that he heard him. He waited until his Dad started heading towards his bedroom before Scott spoke up.

“Dad, the odds of finding a kidnapped victim after 24 hours go way down. It’s been over 24 hours.” Jeff stopped, and turned around to see the way that Scott was clenching his jaw, fear plain as day in his eyes. The father quickly walked over to his oldest, and placed his hand on Scott’s shoulder.

“You and I both know Alan. He’s strong, a lot stronger than most. He’ll be alright. And we will find him, alive.” Jeff assured him. He waited until Scott nodded before he left to call Penny.

Once he was gone, Scott threw the towel still in his hand at the ground in anger and frustration. Alan was his baby brother, he practically raised the teenager after their Mom died and now he was missing and there wasn’t anything that Scott could do about it. Of all the things that could’ve happened, all the ways the Hood could’ve gotten revenge on their father, on their family, he had to go after Alan.

His Dad was right though. They would find Alan, and when they did, Scott would make sure that the Hood would never, ever, get anywhere near his little brother ever again.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

“Guys!” Virgil called out as he came into the living room, seeing Gordon with Tin-Tin and Fermat.

“Dad’s on the line, he want’s to talk to us and John.” Virgil announced. The three of them instantly got up and followed the medic into their father’s office. Two of the screens were on. One of them showed Jeff’s face with Scott’s right behind him, the other showed John’s.

_“Hey Gordon, Fermat, Tin-Tin.”_ Jeff greeted as he saw them on the screen, _“John’s on the line, right?”_

 _“Yeah, I’m here Dad.”_ John’s face suddenly appeared on one of the other screens in the office.

_“Good. So I spoke with Director Cardinal this morning.”_ Jeff started, only to be immediately interrupted by Gordon.

“Did they find him?” With a regrettable expression, their Dad shook his head.

_“Nothing yet. But they did find that the Hood is indeed in the U.S., but was no where near Wharton’s. They think an accomplice of his took Alan, but they’re still trying to I.D. them all. I called Penny, but they don’t have anything yet either.”_ Jeff filled them all in. Gordon, suddenly slammed his fist on the desk.

“Gordon!” Virgil admonished in a shock tone.

“We should be there with you guys looking for him!” Gordon argued.

_“Gords, I want to be there with Dad and Scott too, and I know Virgil does as well,”_ Virgil nodded, agreeing with what John was saying before the second oldest continued, _“But what if a disaster happens and IR is called?”_ John tried to calm the redheaded down. Usually, Gordon was always the optimist, the prankster and joker, but when he got worried and scared and wasn’t able to do anything about it, he got angry. And when he got angry, it didn’t end well.

“Since when is IR more important than our family?” Gordon demanded, glaring at John’s face on the screen.

_“Gordon, even if we did shut down International Rescue until we found Alan, there isn’t anything you boys can do. Already Scott and I are just waiting for news right now.”_ Their Dad broke in, knowing that this was about to take a turn for the worst.

“I’d rather be waiting with there than waiting here.” Gordon told them. He took a few steps away from the screens before turning around to face them again and yelled, “This never would’ve happened if Alan would’ve been on the island during the rest of his break!”

Everyone stared at Gordon when he said that. After a minute, Virgil looked over at his Dad, seeing that Scott was already doing the same thing. The guilt was easy to see on the older man’s face, even though he tried to hide it. Virgil looked back at Gordon however, and quickly realized that the redhead hadn’t even noticed the effect his words just had.

“Gordon, there’s no way any of us could’ve seen this coming. And getting mad isn’t going to solve anything.” Virgil pointed out, trying to remain calm even though his younger brother’s attitude was quickly trying his already frail patience.

“It’s better than doing nothing and acting like you don’t care! Do you even care that our little brother was kidnapped by a crazy psychopath?” Gordon challenged, unable to understand how his older brother seemed to be so calm and collected when their baby brother had been kidnapped.

“How can you ask that Gordon? Of course I care! Just because I’m not yelling and throwing blame around doesn’t mean I don’t care, it doesn’t mean I’m not just as terrified and worried as you!” Virgil shouted, furious that his brother would even think that he didn’t care about his family.

_“Guys, cool it!”_ Scott ordered, but it fell on deaf ears as Gordon and Virgil continued fighting.

“At least I show emotional instead of acting like a robot!” The swimmer shot at the medic.

“SHUT UP!” The room fell completely silent as everyone slowly turned their heads to look at the person who had yelled, the one person that no one could remember ever hearing yell at all. Fermat.

The young boy’s eyes were filled with tears, a few already running down his cheeks. Tin-Tin, who was standing beside him, crouched down in front of him, putting her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. In the midst of there anger, fear, and screaming, the Tracy family had forgotten that the two teenagers were even in the room with them and felt terrible for acting the way they were in front of them.

“It’s m-my fault.” Fermat stammered through hitched breaths. Virgil and Gordon immediately walked over to him, Virgil crouching down in front of him beside Tin-Tin.

“What are talking about Fermat?” Virgil asked, his voice gentle and soft.

“For past mo-mon-month, Alan ha-ha-ha, couldn’t sleep. He kept ha-having ni-night-ni, bad dreams. About the Hood. He wa-was lu-lu, fortunate to get two hours of sleep.” Fermat stuttered, trying to keep his tears from falling.

_“How does that make it your fault Fermat?”_ Jeff spoke up, the guilt in his stomach becoming worse as he learned the reason behind Alan’s behavior at school before the start of spring break.

“If I ha-ha, told you Mr. Tracy, may-maybe you and Al-Alan wo-would not have fought, and he’d still b-be here.” Fermat explained. Once he was done, the tears broke free as Fermat started crying from his fear, worry and now revealed guilt. Tin-Tin quickly wrapped her arms around her friend, holding him tightly while the Tracy family processed what the youngest on the island told them.

_“This isn’t your fault Fermat. The only one to blame for this, is the Hood. Now, I know that you boys want to be here, but all of us just sitting and waiting is going to drive us all crazy. At least while you three are still running International Rescue, some good can get done. I promise, I will inform all of you if there are any developments. Until then, John, Virgil, Gordon, you three stay where you are and keep the Thunderbirds going. I’ll talk to you all soon.”_ Jeff finally said before disconnecting, causing the screen that had previously shown him and Scott to go black.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

“Dad? You okay?” Scott questioned once his Dad cut off contact with the rest of their family, worry evident in his voice.

“Gordon was right, if I had kept Alan on the island, this would never have happened.” Jeff said. He felt the couch dip a little as his oldest sat down beside him.

“Dad, if the Hood is so dead set on capturing Alan, he would’ve found a way. He could’ve easily just waited until spring break was over.” Scott pointed out.

“But by then, we would’ve heard that the Hood had escaped prison. I could’ve contacted the school and get better security for Alan, or we could’ve let him stay on the island until he was captured again.”

“Dad, we don’t know what could’ve happened, and sitting back wondering, isn’t going to solve anything. And like you said, the Hood is the one who did this. If you’re going to blame anyone, blame him.” The brunette reminded him. Scott knew from experience that if his Dad got sucked into the ‘what ifs’, he might never come out.

After their Mom died and Alan came home from the hospital, the patriarch spent almost a month in his room, caught in a mix of depression, guilt, and self-loathing. His Dad couldn’t do that right now, not when Alan was still missing and Scott’s other younger brothers needed him. Scott couldn’t do this on his own.

Jeff nodded. Even though he knew he was still at fault, Scott was right. The Hood was also to blame, and he couldn’t sit around blaming himself. It wouldn’t do anything, much less help him find his missing son who still needed him.

“You’re right. I’m going to head to the FBI, see if I can help out with anything. You coming along?” Jeff wondered as he grabbed his coat off the back of the couch and stood up.

“You bet I am.” Scott said in a determined tone. Together the father and son left their hotel and headed back to the FBI.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So next chapter is the reason why this story is rated T. There will be a note explaining why in the next chapter. Hope you all liked this chapter!


	7. Endurance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is the chapter that has the worst of the torture. Nothing sexual, but it is still a little gruesome though. I would say this chapter would be rated a high T. It’s a little graphic, but I don’t think it’s too bad. If blood, fingernails, or broken bones make you squeamish at all, I’d recommend skipping this chapter. Don’t worry, next chapter will have a small little summary as to what happened without all the details.

Alan was tired. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since the Hood left him alone, but it felt like a couple of hours at least, not to mention he was pretty sure he had fallen asleep, though didn’t know for how long. He wondered if he had been gone long enough that his family knew he was missing. And if they did indeed know, would they be looking for him?

There was a part of him that said of course his family would be looking for him, but the other part of him doubted it. After all, his father saw him as nothing but a disappointment and his brothers only cared if he was around because they needed someone to tease.

Well, no matter what his family thought of him, and if they were looking for him or not, Alan swore to himself that he wouldn’t tell the Hood or his minions. If the Hood got his hands on that kind of technology, Alan didn’t even want to think of what the villain could.

Suddenly, the door burst open, and Mullion came in, slamming the door shut behind him.

“You’re up, good.” Mullion stated when he saw the prisoner staring him. Not wasting any time, he walked over to Alan and bent down over him as he asked, “So, have you decided yet?”

“I will never help the Hood.” Alan had thought Mullion would get angry with his answer, but instead, he smiled.

“I was hoping you’d say that.” Mullion admitted, then slammed his fist into Alan’s left eye. Before Alan could fully recover from the blow, the man’s meaty fist punched him in the jaw.

Despite the throbbing in his head, and his now bloody lip, Alan slowly turned to face Mullion again. He was still standing in front of him, and still smiling. Then, he struck again, this time though, his fist shot directly into the teenager’s ribs. Then again, and again, and again.

Minutes later, Mullion stopped his attack, allowing Alan to finally breathe. His ribs protested with every deep breath that the blonde took, but with the punches constantly forcing air out of his lungs for so long, they were burning for oxygen. Once he caught his breath though, Alan tried not to move as much. He was certain that some of his ribs were broken.

The blonde had heard and felt at least three cracks on his left side, but there could be more damage, and moving around wouldn’t help. Virgil rammed that into his brain pretty hard when Alan started his Thunderbird training. Even though he knew the damage that Mullion could’ve done, Alan silently said to himself, _don’t say anything_.

“You really think a few punches is going to make me change my mind?” Alan questioned with disbelief. Mullion’s smile only grew as he shook his head.

“On the contrary, I was hoping you wouldn’t be one to easily give up.” Mullion told him. He then reached down and placed one hand down on Alan’s left arm, grabbing his hand with the other. Then, he started twisting it over to the side. Alan immediately tried to pull his hand away, but Mullion’s grip was too strong.

_SNAP!_

A loud scream escaped Alan’s lips when he felt something his wrist break. The agony of his now broken wrist was so great that he didn’t even notice that Mullion had let go.

After a few minutes, Alan looked over at his left wrist to see how bad it was, even though a part of him really didn’t want too. Luckily, no bone was sticking out or anything, but it was already becoming extremely swollen. His wrist appeared to have become at least twice as big, enough that the zip-tie that was wrapped around his arm, was now cutting into his skin without needing to move or pull against it. Despite that though, the words, _don’t say anything_ , rang through Alan’s mind.

Seeing that the captive still wasn’t begging for him to stop, wasn’t offering to do whatever they wanted, Mullion went over to Alan’s right side, grabbed his index and middle finger, and slammed them back, easily breaking them.

Alan screamed again as he tried to pull away from the Hood’s minion, but failed again. The zip-ties were too tight, and moving now caused waves of pain to run through his body. Mullion again waited until Alan stopped screaming and fidgeting before he stood up straight and stared down at the blonde.

“Well, I guess if broken bones won’t make you talk, we’ll have to try something else.” Mullion decided, staring at Alan with a thoughtful expression, as though he was really putting some thought into whatever torture he was going to put the teenager through next.

Alan hesitantly lifted his head, mentally preparing himself for what he might see. He knew that his expression was one of pain as well as fear, but silently, three words repeated themselves over and over.

_Don’t say anything_.

After another moment, Mullion looked over at the table by the door that Alan had completely forgotten about. He must’ve have seen something that gave him an idea of his next move because he turned his head to face Alan, a sadistic grin once again appearing on his face. The expression caused the blue-eyed teenager to shrink back in his chair, unable to stop the feeling of terror running through his veins.

“I think I know what will make you talk. But first, have to make sure you don’t move.” Mullion said as he pulled a pocket knife out of his jacket and flicked the blade open. Without any warning, the older man jammed the knife right in Alan’s left hand, hard enough that it went right through the skin, muscles, out the other side and into the metal of the arm on the chair.

Another screamed forced its way passed Alan’s lips as another wave of agony ran through his body. Tears started running down his cheeks uncontrollably. After a few moments, the pain dulled down a little to were it was barely tolerable. He looked at the damage and felt sick at the sight. The knife sticking out of his swollen hand, blood running down the sides of the limb and his fingers, made him want to throw up, so he turned his gaze away.

The teenager knew that he could only hold out for a little longer before he passed out from the pain. He was already feeling very lightheaded and his body was starting to grow numb. But the words _don’t say anything_ , still rang clearly in his mind.

_Screech._

Alan’s attention was drawn back to Mullion when he heard the scrapping of metal against the floor. He saw that his interrogator was dragging the chair that the Hood had sat in when he was in the room hours ago, over to Alan’s left side. And there was a pair of pliers in Mullion’s hand.

Alan gulped, knowing that whatever the Hood’s muscle was planning to use those for wasn’t good, and no doubt was going to cause more pain. The teenager clenched his teeth together though, still just as determined to keep his mouth shut as he was before Mullion came into the room.

Once the chair was beside Alan, Mullion sat down, holding up the pliers so he was sure Alan could see them.

“So, have you changed your mind, or would like me to continue?” Mullion wondered, the sadistic grin still on his face.

When Alan still said nothing, Mullion said, “Suit yourself.”

He quickly used the pliers to grab the top of Alan’s left, little finger and before the teenager could process what was about to happen, he yanked it off. Alan couldn’t stop the first scream from escaping his throat. But as Mullion moved on to the next finger, he clamped his teeth down on his tongue and the inside of his cheeks, hard.

As Mullion ripped off his next fingernail, and the next, and the next, Alan’s mouth filled with blood from his teeth cutting his cheeks. He was successful in keeping from screaming, though he did gasp every time, but tears of pain ran freely down his face.

When Mullion got to his thumb though, it finally happened. His body had gone through enough pain to keep Alan conscious. His head felt like it was floating as Alan’s body went completely numb, and everything started going black as the pain-free, peaceful darkness claimed him.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

The darkness didn’t last. Alan was abruptly torn from his painless sleep when cold water was suddenly thrown his face. Blinking the water out of his eyes, as he gasped for air, Alan looked to see Mullion standing in front of him, holding a now-empty bucket.

“If you think you can get out this by passing out, you’ve got another thing coming brat.” Mullion told him, actually sounding like he was angry that Alan dared to fall unconscious. The blonde’s only response though was to spit directly at his tormentor’s face.

Mullion’s reaction was slow, as though he was stunned by the teenager’s action. He dropped the bucket onto the ground, and wiped his face before looking back at Alan, his expression dark and murderous. Before Alan could even blink, Mullion had his hand wrapped around the teenager’s neck and was squeezing it tightly, making it nearly impossible for Alan to breathe.

“Mullion, that’s enough.” Alan never thought he would be grateful to hear the Hood’s voice. But in that moment, he really was. Mullion did as he was told, letting his grip loosen up before he took his hand completely off Alan’s neck, allowing him to breathe.

“I take it, you were unsuccessful in getting him to talk.” The Hood assumed, seeing Alan’s black eye, swollen left wrist, the knife in Alan’s left hand which was still causing it to bleed, and all of the fingers on his left hand were missing their fingernails. Moving his eyes to examine his captive further, he saw that two of Alan’s fingers on his right hand were also broken.

“Oh, just give me more time sir, and I promise, I will get the information out of him.” Mullion almost full-out pleaded.

“Any more time and he will be dead, or at the least, unable to talk.” The Hood replied, thinking a moment before he said, “No, we will have to try something else.”

Alan wasn’t sure what the Hood meant when he said _something else_ , but he knew that the odds were, it would be worse than what Mullion just put him through. He took a deep breath, and started preparing for whatever the Hood had planned, while he silently prayed to whoever was listening that his family, or someone, would find him soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is chapter is the worst of the entire story when it comes to torture, so if you guys managed to get through this one, the rest of the story will be easy. Also, this is the very first time I have ever written scenes like this before, so if it’s poorly done, I’m really sorry.


	8. New Information

After spending the entire day at the FBI headquarters and finding nothing, Jeff and Scott went back to their hotel, though neither of them had slept that much. They were getting ready to go back when Jeff heard something.

_Ring! Ring!_

Jeff immediately ran into the living room of the hotel suite to grab his ringing phone. Seeing that it was Deputy Cardinal, Jeff was quick to press the _accept_ button.

“Andrew, did you find something?” Jeff asked, turning around to see Scott rush into the room, also hearing the phone ring.

_“One of the science labs here in Washington was broken into last night. Our security cameras got a clear look. It was Lisa Transom. She’s a known associate of the Hood, arrested last year at the same time as her boss.”_ Andrew informed him.

“We’ll be right there.” Jeff replied. He then hung up the phone and placed it in his pocket as he looked over at his oldest son and said, “They got a lead on one of the Hood’s associates.”

“Then let’s go.” Scott didn’t even wait to see if his Dad was following before he walked out of the suite. Jeff of course, did follow right at his heels.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

In record time, Jeff and Scott made it to the FBI building and to Director Cardinal’s office.

“What have you got?” Jeff immediately asked as he and Scott entered the room. Andrew quickly started typing on his computer, pulling up the footage of Transom in the science lab that was broken into.

“Here is the footage, we got a clear look at her face.” The Director told them, pausing the video on Transom’s face to show the two Tracy’s. Even though Jeff and Scott had barely saw her when she was with the Hood when he attacked them last year, they easily recognized her.

“Now, we’ve tracked her walking over a block away before she gets into a black SUV and drives away.” Cardinal then pulled up the photo of Transom’s ride, “We did manage to get a licence plate. It’s the same one that had picked up the Hood when he arrived in the city. Right now though, we are keeping this away from the press, we don’t want to tip off the kidnappers at how much we know.”

“Any sign of Alan though? Or the Hood?” Scott asked, desperate for proof that his baby brother was alive and okay.

“None so far.” Cardinal replied sympathetically before adding, “But we are working on tracking the SUV to see where she went. We also checked to see how she escaped and found that the prison she was sent to also had a fire, during which she, and another of the Hood’s associates, escaped.”

The Director then pulled up another picture, this time, a mug shot of a man that Jeff and Scott also recognized.

“Mullion.” Jeff said.

“Yes. The fire happened last week. The fire just so happens to be identical to the one at the Hood’s prison. Highly doubt that either of them were a coincidence, so we’re looking to see who could’ve started them as well.” Andrew revealed, turning to face Jeff and Scott.

“Alright, I’ll go let my other sons know.” Jeff replied, then turned to walk out of the room to make the call.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

The minute that everyone on the island heard the phone ringing, they ran to Jeff’s office where they would all be able to hear. Even Brains, Kyrano, and Onaha came with Fermat and Tin-Tin. They were also quite worried when they heard that Alan had been taken.

Onaha, as she somewhat saw him, and the other Tracy boys, and Fermat, almost like they were her sons. Brains because he somewhat felt like a father figure towards his son’s best friend. Kyrano felt somewhat the same as Brains, but also felt extremely guilty as it was his half-brother who had targeted the youngest Tracy and kidnapped him.

Virgil answered the phone and put it on speaker phone so everyone could hear, then got John on the other line so he too was updated at the same time. Once everyone was in contact with each other, Jeff told them everyone what was going on.

_“They are still working on finding out where Transom went after the lab, but nothing so far. Right now though, they found signs pointing to Mullion being close to Wharton’s a couple of hours before Alan’s was abducted. So, there is reasonable amount of proof that the Hood was the one who took Alan.”_ Though everyone was positive that it was indeed the telekinetic who had kidnapped the youngest family member, there was a chance that they were wrong. Now though, there was no doubt in their minds.

_“Dad?”_ John broke in once he knew his Dad was finished, _“I want to come down from Thunderbird 5. When we do find Alan, the first I want to do, and I know Virgil and Gordon want to do, is head straight over to join you guys.”_

“But John, we would then have to stop International Rescue until we can get someone back up there. Thunderbird 5 is basically the call center for IR and we need someone to run it.” Virgil pointed out. He completely understood why his older brother wanted to come down, but they had agreed to keep IR going until Alan was found, that the world still needed them too.

“I-I can go.” Brains suddenly chimed in. Everyone turned to look at him with expression ranging from shock, to grateful smiles. Brains had been the one to design the Thunderbirds, and oversaw their construction, and had done a couple of rotations on Thunderbird 5 with John, but he seemed more happy on land than in space. The fact that he had volunteered to go so John could be with his family when they found Alan made everyone smile at him.

_“Alright. Virgil, go up to 5 with Brains and bring John down. I’ll call you all when I get more news.”_ Jeff agreed.

“Got it Dad.” Virgil agreed to his father’s order. Jeff then hung up, as did John. Once they were gone, everyone left the room, except for Virgil and Gordon.

The two brothers had barely spoken since their fight the other day, neither of them knowing what to say. They were both still extremely worried about their youngest brother and were a little scared that if they approached the subject, they would just start fighting again. At the same time though, they were both still angry at each other. Virgil at Gordon for his belief that he didn’t care about Alan, and Gordon at Virgil for still remaining so calm and collected when their brother was missing.

“I’m going to go prep Thunderbird 3.” Virgil informed his younger brother, turning around to look at him.

“Okay.” Gordon replied, somewhat indifferently. Virgil waited a moment, trying to figure out what to say while also giving Gordon time to say something if he wanted too. When the medic

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

“Well?” The Hood questioned once Transom entered the building. The redhead turned around to see Mullion and their boss waiting for her. She pulled her bag off her shoulder, opened it, and held it out for the Hood to see. He leaned forward to look inside, to see what she had all gotten.

“Like I said, every drug on the list.” Transom informed him, with a slight giddy voice. The Hood looked up at her and smiled. Mullion then leaned closer so he could also see what was in the bag.

“I don’t see how if broken bones won’t make the brat talk, these drugs will.” Mullion commented. He didn’t like the idea of drugging people for more information. Pain was a lot more motivating. Plus, Mullion actually liked getting his hands dirty. Drugs made it so he couldn’t do that. The Hood reached in and pulled out a small vial filled with a pale green, liquid and held it out for Mullion to see.

“Oh trust me Mullion, never underestimate the tricks that a drugged mind can play on a person.” The Hood told him, giving the taller man an evil grin, before turning his attention back to Transom.

“Get the syringes ready. I want to start first thing in the morning.” The Hood ordered. Transom immediately nodded and went off to do what she was told, Mullion following close behind her.

Still holding up the vial, the Hood’s grin deepened as he said to himself, “Oh Jeff, if only you were actually here to see what’s about to happen to your boy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I made up Transom’s first name because it was never said in the movie. I checked. If there was an actual first name, then let me know and I will fix it. Also, I’m not exactly sure of Brains role in the creation of IR or if he does rotations with John, but I thought it worked. Hope you guys don’t mind if I am wrong, and I hope you guys liked this chapter.


	9. Desperate

Alan was exhausted. He wasn’t sure if it was because of lack of sleep or because his body was trying to heal from all the damage it had taken while Mullion interrogated him. It was probably both though. His head felt heavy, and it was hard to think clearly. With his head resting on his right shoulder, he looked down at his left arm.

The knife was still in his hand, though the blood had long since dried. The blood on his fingers from where his fingernails used to be had also dried, as did the blood that had run down the chair, creating streaks of red on the silver metal. His wrist however, wasn’t swelling anymore then it had already, at least, not the he could see, or feel.

Right now though, Alan couldn’t feel much of anything. He was pretty sure he was still in a bit of shock, but he wasn’t sure how long it was going to last. He had never really been in shock before, at least, not like this. After the Hood attacked his home and family, Alan was in a bit of shock, mostly just stunned at everything that happened and was a little slow to process everything after it happened, but this was different. It was a lot stronger, and Alan wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He liked not feeling the pain, but that had to mean that his body was damaged and pained enough that his brain wasn’t processing it, right?

Alan wished Virgil was here with him. He’d know what was going on and what needed to happen to make sure he was okay, being the medic and all. The teenager also wished Scott was here. Despite the teasing, his oldest brother was extremely protective of him and wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him, not if he could help it. Honestly, Alan wished his entire family was here to get him out, even his Dad.

_I’d rather be anywhere than here with you._

Was it really only a few days ago that Alan said that to his father? Fate sure decided to take his words as a challenge, because right now, he would rather be with his Dad, even if they were fighting again. The blonde wondered if his Dad was out there looking for him. Logic said that he was, that despite everything, he was still his son and he still loved him. His heart however whispered doubts to his brain, reminding him of how much trouble he caused his Dad and brothers, of how he was often ignored and forgotten, how the only time his family noticed him was to yell at him or tease him.

The internal debate was stopped when Alan heard the squeak of rusty hinges as the door to his cell opened. The Hood then walked in with Mullion and, to Alan’s somewhat surprise, Transom. He had only seen her once in the entire time that had passed. She had come in about an hour after the Hood and Mullion left to give him a drink of water. It wasn’t until then did Alan realized how empty his stomach was. But he wasn’t expecting her to come in with Mullion and the Hood as she had kept her distance from him.

Transom immediately went to the table and pulled out several items from a bag that she was carrying, but with the Hood and Mullion standing in front of Alan, he couldn’t get a clear look.

“And how are you feeling today Alan?” The Hood asked with fake concern and sympathy. The teenager’s only response was a hateful glare. Mullion then stepped forward and slapped Alan across the face, his fingernails scraping his cheek enough that they tore his skin.

“The man asked you a question.” Mullion tried to get an answer out of the prisoner. Alan however, stayed silent. The older man clenched his fist and moved to punch him, but the Hood grabbed his arm, stopping him. He then stepped forward, only a foot or two away from Alan.

“Do you know what Transom is doing over by the table?” The Hood questioned with real curiosity. Alan moved his to get a look at what the redhead was indeed doing, Mullion moved out of the way so he could see better, and the teenager saw a bunch of small vials, all filled with different coloured liquids. She was pour them into a beaker and mixing them all together.

“A few hours ago, Transom procured several drugs from a medical science lab in the city. The lab creates them and studies the effects and how they can be used. Separately, they are harmless, mostly. But together, causes quite an unpleasant experience.” The Hood paused his explanation as Alan slowly turned his attention back to his captor.

“If you just tell me all I want to know Alan, I will spare from going through the pain that that mixture of drugs will cause you.” The Hood offered.

Glaring at him once again, Alan said, “Screw you.”

Mullion again came to defend his boss. He lifted his leg and slammed in his foot into Alan’s right knew, hard enough that not only did Alan feel something cracked under the weight, but it caused the chair to fall backwards with Alan still tied to it.

Alan hit the ground with a pained grunt, but made no other sound then that. He wasn’t there long enough to fully process what was happening before the chair, with him still sitting in it, started to lift until he was back in the upright position. The blonde lifted his head to see the Hood’s eyes glowing red, revealing that he was the one who brought the chair back up.

“One last chance Alan, tell me everything you know about the Thunderbirds, and I will let you go.” The Hood offered.

“Do your worst, I still won’t help you.” Alan dared the man. The Hood nodded, accepting the challenge, then looked over his shoulder at Transom.

Transom had finished mixing the drugs she had stolen and used a large syringe to suck up the liquid, then turned to face Alan, giving him a clear view of what she was holding. The youngest Tracy gulped, but readied himself for what was about to happen. No matter what, he wasn’t breaking.

Without a word, order, or warning, Transom came over and jabbed the needle into Alan’s neck, eliciting a scream from the teenager. Completely undeterred by the boy’s reaction, Transom pressed down the plunger, forcing the drug into Alan’s system, before pulling it out of his skin, none to gently. She then walked away from their prisoner and came to stand by Mullion on the other end of the room.

The cocktail mixture of drugs took effect almost instantly. They could see Alan having a hard time keeping his head up, his eyes somewhat glazing over. Then, he started fidgeting and turning his head, as though there was something getting his attention, but they had no idea what.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

_Alan felt like he was floating in blackness. He wasn’t sure what was going on or where he was, but he knew it wasn’t right. He had a distant memory of a redhead stabbing him with a needle, but he couldn’t remember why. He could remember much of anything, even though he knew he should. Whatever was given to him was messing with his mind and it was starting to scare him._

_Suddenly, he started hearing voice though it was not clear enough to hear what the person was actually saying. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt very threatened by the person talking, even though the voice was soft and quiet._

_“Poor Allie, can’t do anything. Can’t even think for yourself.” Alan then heard Virgil’s voice. Suddenly, he saw his brother’s face right in front of him, then felt a punch to his face. Alan’s head snapped to the side where he saw Gordon, smiling and laughing._

_“Blowing up a chemistry room? You sure can’t do anything right, can you Sprout?” Gordon mocked before slapping him in the face, forcing his head to the other side where he saw John scowling._

_“Why can’t you just stay out of trouble? You are such a brat.” John complained, reaching forward, then grabbed and pulled his hair painfully. Then, his face was gone, replaced by Scott’s._

_“Is it really that hard to do anything right Alan. Do you have any idea how much trouble you cause Dad?” Scott wondered before he also launched his clenched fist at Alan’s face, getting him in the jaw._

_Then everything was black again. The only thing he could hear was that voice he hadn’t identified yet, the voice that unnerved him. Originally, it was soft, but now it seemed to be getting frustrated and annoyed. But the voice that he still couldn’t understand was overshadowed by his father’s, who’s face appeared in front of him._

_“As if it wasn’t hard enough looking at your face and not thinking of your mother, you have to go and cause trouble, as though you are tainting her memory. Why can’t you be like your brothers. You are such a waste, you should’ve died that day instead of her.” His father said with such disgust that Alan flinched in response. Then his father came at him, slapping him hard across the face._

_It didn’t stop there. More and more insults were hurled at him, from all of his brothers as well as his father. Punches and slaps thrown, his hair pulled at all different directions. He just wanted it to stop, but it didn’t. It kept coming and coming._

_Suddenly, the voice that had stayed in the background was yelling in his ear, “Alan, tell me. Tell me what I want to know!”_

_Alan couldn’t answer though. Everything was finally starting to fade away as he sunk farther down into the dark abyss._

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

“Alan, tell me. Tell me what I want to know!” The Hood yelled, completely losing his patience as he reached forward, grabbed Alan by his shirt collar and somewhat lifted him up, getting right into his face. Alan however simply shook his head and closed his crystal blue eyes.

Once the Hood realized that his captive finally passed out, he let go of his hold on Alan and walked towards Transom and Mullion. He had been trying to get the boy to talk for over two hours while the drug was in his system. Alan however, seemed to be distracted by something that was going on in his mind, kept staring blankly, every now and then whipping his head to the side, but said nothing.

“Now what? Wait for the drugs to pass out of his system before we try again?” Mullion wondered, somewhat impressed that the brat still had kept his mouth shut.

“We only have enough of the cocktail for one more dose. And we would have to wait at least 48 hours until the dose he’s on to pass out of his system before we use it. Otherwise, it could cause brain damage, as well as other terrible side effects. We need his brain working in order to get the correct information out of him.” Transom

“No, we will not try again.” The Hood announced, surprising his two followers, who looked over at him, “If Alan has not yielded yet, he most likely never will. At least, not as fast as we need him to. We would need to hit him from other angles, and we don’t have the time or resources at the moment. The police are getting close. We will have to go to our other plan.”

“And that is?” Mullion asked. Both he and Transom were unaware that their boss had another plan.

“We make a deal with Jeff Tracy instead of his son.” The Hood said simply, then walked out of the room.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Jeff was having a hard time resisting the urge to punch something, or someone. Even though the FBI was still working hard to track Transom in the hopes that she would lead them directly to the Hood and to Alan, so far, they hadn’t found anything. They tracked the USV to a major highway out of the city and unfortunately, there were many turnoffs that were not covered by cameras, so they had no way of knowing where exactly she had turned off, if she did.

Right now, Jeff and Scott were in one of the conference rooms looking over maps of the roads to see if there was any place that the Hood could be holed up, just in case the satellite images missed something. It would have to be abandoned and isolated. There couldn’t be any chance that someone would find them. Unfortunately, they hadn’t found much. It was starting to feel like they were grasping at straws.

“Jeff?” The Tracy patriarch turned his head to see Andrew sticking his head into the room, “We’ve received a phone call. He says he’s the Hood. He wants to talk to you.”

Scott and Jeff dropped everything they were doing and ran after the Director to another room that had a phone line open, along with a computer that another agent was typing on. They didn’t need to be told that she was trying to track down the Hood’s location through the phone now that the criminal had contacted them.

“Hello?” Jeff answered, keeping his tone calm, cool, and collected. He had no idea what state Alan was in or if he was even alive. Losing his temper and pushing the Hood, would most likely end up with Alan paying for it.

_“Hello Jeff. And how are you doing?”_ The Hood questioned, sounding quite full of himself.

“Where is Alan?” Jeff immediately asked with a worried filled voice.

_“Oh he’s in the other room. But before we get to that, why don’t we talk about what you’re willing to do in order to get him back?”_ The Hood suggested. Jeff shook his head.

“Let me talk to him.” Jeff demanded. There was no way he was taking this conversation any further unless he knew that Alan was alive and talked to him.

_“To be honest, I’m not sure if your son is in a talking mood. He’s been through a lot the last few days.”_ Jeff tightened his jaw to keep from screaming out in rage at the thought of someone hurting his baby. From his spot at the desk, he could see Scott clenching his fists, attempting to do the same.

“If you want to negotiate, you better prove to me that Alan’s alive.” Jeff replied. The phone then went silent for a minute before the Hood responded.

_“One moment.”_ Jeff felt his chest tighten as the Hood apparently agreed to his demand. He was eager to hear from his son, but was terrified at what state Alan might be in. He had no idea what the Hood had done to him. Looking up at Scott, he saw the angry yet fearful expression on his face and knew his face had the same look.

For a long moment, there wasn’t any sound coming from the phone, besides the faint footsteps. Then a squeaky door hinge. After that, there were some muffled noises before it went completely silent again.

_“Dad?”_ For the first time since Jeff learned that Alan was kidnapped, he felt like he could finally breathe at the sound of his son’s voice.

“Alan! Are you okay?” Jeff pleaded, needing to know that his youngest was alright. There was a very slight pause for the teenager spoke.

_“I’m alright.”_ Alan replied, then he was gone as the Hood’s voice came back through the phone.

_“There. As you can hear, he’s alive. Now, why don’t we discuss just what it’s going to take to get him back?”_ The Hood suggested.

“What do you want?” Jeff growled, barely able to contain the fury that was trying to consume him.

_“I want all the information about your precious Thunderbirds. All the machines, how they work, how they are run, what they can do, what they are made of, the works. You will put all the information on a flashdrive, leave it in a location I pick. Once I see that you have followed through and have made it out of town, I will send you a message as to where your son is.”_ The Hood laid out his terms. Scott looked up at his father in shock over the Hood’s requests. His Dad also looked stunned, but more calm, going right into his business mode with he did when he was making deals at work.

“How do I know you won’t kill him? And what are you planning on doing with the Thunderbirds designs and technology?” Jeff wondered, trying to keep calm. Odds were the Hood did not have any good intentions with their technology, and there was no way to know that he would indeed release his son once he had what he wanted.

_“You don’t. And it’s not your concern, but let me ask you this. Are your precious Thunderbirds really more important than your own son?”_ The Hood asked with a slightly innocent tone. Jeff paused. To him, his son of course was far more important than any piece of technology he could ever possess, but to the world? They needed the Thunderbirds.

“Where do you want me to drop off the information?” Jeff questioned, a plan quickly forming in his mind. Looking up, he saw stunned expressions on both Scott’s and Andrew’s faces.

_“I’ll call once I’ve decided.”_ The Hood answered, then hung up before anyone could respond.

“Dad, please tell me you’ve got a plan.” Scott begged, not sure what was going on in the former astronaut’s mind.

“I do.” Jeff assured the brunette, then stood up so he was eye level with his oldest. Placing a hand on Scott shoulder, Jeff said, “Don’t worry Scott. We’re getting him back, alive.”

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

It seemed like an eternity had passed before he finally came out of the abyss he had hidden in. Very slowly, Alan opened his eyes to find that he was still in the chair he had been sitting in the entire time he had been kidnapped. The only person in the room was Mullion, who was giving him a hateful and disgusted look. Alan half expected the man to come over and start punching him again, but he didn’t move. Probably under orders to leave him alone until the Hood decided what to do to him next.

Alan hoped that the Hood wouldn’t have Mullion beat him again. Though his body was still somewhat numb, his injuries were still throbbing and still hurt, even if it was dulled. He knew that if he moved at all, the pain would flare up again.

Luckily for him though, he didn’t feel like he had been beaten recently, like he would’ve if he had been punched, slapped, or had his hair pulled when he was under the effects of whatever drug mixture Transom had injected him with, which meant it was all in his head. That didn’t make Alan feel much better though, because deep down, he knew it was the truth. He was screw-up, was a burden. Maybe he should’ve died in that avalanche instead of his mother.

Alan felt cold and sick to his stomach, as though he was about to throw up. But he wasn’t sure he actually would since he hadn’t eaten anything since he was taken, and only had one cup of water that was mostly likely out of his system by now. Was it possible to throw-up with an empty stomach. Alan had a vague memory of Virgil telling him that when the body is trying to get something out of its system by vomiting but has nothing in its stomach, its called dry-heaving and apparently hurts worse than vomiting.

The teenager’s attention was gladly pulled from his train of thought when he heard the door open. However, his stomach immediately felt worse when he saw that it was the Hood, and oddly enough, there was a phone in his hand. Mullion then moved to stand beside Alan, pulling something from his pocket.

“Your father wants to talk to you.” The Hood said, holding up the phone, one hand over the part where you would speak into so that whoever was on the receiving end couldn’t hear. Suddenly, Alan felt something sharp and cold lightly poke the side of his neck.

“Don’t say anything you will regret boy.” Mullion threatened, his voice low in Alan’s ear. The teenager carefully looked down to see that the muscled adult was holding a knife, the end just barely touching his skin. How many knives did this guy have? At least two because the one that he used to stab his hand was still in it. The blonde then turned his eyes back to the Hood who was making his way over to him, placing the phone against Alan ear and mouth so he could talk.

“Dad?” Alan said quietly.

_“Alan! Are you okay?”_ His Dad instantly responded, relief and worry clear as day in his tone. A part of the blonde wanted to cry at the sound of his father’s voice, he had been missing him so much, but the other part still had his father’s hurtful words and actions memorized, even though they were just the side effect of the drug Transom had injected him with.

Alan’s attention was immediately pulled back to what was happening when Mullion pressed the knife into Alan’s neck just a little harder, not enough to cut the skin though.

“I’m alright.” The teenager said, and before he could blink, the Hood pulled the phone away so he could talk to Jeff. Mullion kept the knife in place though and clasped his other hand against Alan’s mouth so he wouldn’t make any noise.

“There. As you can hear, he’s alive. Now, why don’t we discuss just what it’s going to take to get him back.” Alan heard the Hood say to his father, watching ad the short, bald man go to the other end of the room before turning back to face his minion and prisoner.

“I want all the information about your precious Thunderbirds. All the machines, how they work, how they are run, what they can do, what they are made of, the works. You will put all the information on a flashdrive, leave it in a location I pick. Once I see that you have followed through and have made it out of town, I will send you a message as to where your son is.”

“You don’t. And it’s not your concern, but let me ask you this. Are your precious Thunderbirds really more important than your own son?” The Hood asked. Hearing that, Alan shook his head, trying to get his mouth free so he could protest to what his captor was trying to do. There was no way Alan was going to let his Dad give the Hood the information he wanted. He wasn’t worth it. Mullion however pushed the tip of the knife into his skin again, forcing Alan to stop moving. By that point though, the Hood had gotten his answer.

“I’ll call once I’ve decided.” The Hood then hung up the phone and tossed it to Mullion, who quickly moved his hand from Alan’s mouth so he could catch the small device.

“Get rid of the phone and pick up another burner. That way, it will be harder to track us.” Mullion immediately did as he was ordered and while he walked out of the room, the Hood turned back to Alan and said, “Guess your father actually does care about you. Could’ve fooled me.”

With that, he turned and exited the room, leaving Alan completely alone once again. For a moment, he couldn’t think clearly. From what Alan heard, his Dad was apparently actually going to give the Hood the information about the Thunderbirds, and he was stunned. He didn’t think his Dad actually would do that for him. Not only was Alan the troublemaker, the burden of the family, but the Thunderbirds technology in the Hood’s hands was only a recipe for disaster. How could his father do that for him?

With that question still plaguing his mind, Alan drifted unconscious once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you all were wondering, the drugs that the Hood used, I completely made up. I tried to look up some real drugs that would cause hallucinations, but they weren’t the kind that I wanted to use nor did they have the exact effects I wanted, so I made up my own. It is a work of fiction after all, right?


	10. Found

As Jeff walked into the small, out of the way park, he tried to keep from looking at his surroundings. The Hood had called only an hour earlier, ordering him to leave a flashdrive with the information he wanted under a bench in an unpopular park so there wouldn’t be so many people around. He was also warned that if there was any police, agents, or other authorities present, he would kill Alan. So Jeff went alone.

He quickly spotted an empty park bench, bent down and acted like he was just tying his shoe, and slipped the flashdrive under. He then stood up and continued walking straight to the other end of the park, keeping his eyes down. If the Hood or one of his associates were indeed watching him, he didn’t want them to think that he was trying to look for them or identify them and confront them, though he really, really wanted to.

Soon, he was out of the park and made his way down the three blocks where the black car and Director Cardinal was waiting for him. Even though Jeff was supposed to go alone, Andrew drove him close to the location so he could be there if something went wrong, but far enough away that he wouldn’t be spotted. He then sat and waited for Jeff to return.

“Well?” Andrew prompted his old friend when Jeff got into the passenger seat and shut the door.

“It’s done. Now we wait, again.” Jeff answered, looking down at his hands that were resting on his lap.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Andrew asked. Jeff sighed, but didn’t reply for a moment.

The plan was somewhat a simple one. They put a microscopic size tracker on the flashdrive that would let them know where it was at all time. And if the Hood or one of the people working for him discovered it, or simply moved the file onto a computer or another flashdrive, there was a back up plan.

The minute they opened the file that was supposed to have the information on the Thunderbirds, a computer virus, created by John who was all too happy to help his Dad and Scott find his younger brother, would not only shut down the computer or whatever device the file was on, but also send out a signal that they could also track. It was almost foolproof. Almost.

“It will. It has too.” Jeff finally responded to the Director’s question. He couldn’t handle it if this wouldn’t work, because if it didn’t, his son was dead. And that was a loss that Jeff knew he couldn’t take. Andrew didn’t say anything as he started up the car and drove back to the FBI.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

The Hood waited impatiently for Transom to return with the flashdrive. Ever since he had called Jeff Tracy and told him where to put the drive with the information he wanted, he had been on edge. His last plan against the Tracy family didn’t go well, considering he at first didn’t know which family was running International Rescue until he got to the island and he underestimated Alan, he wasn’t sure if he could count on this plan either, especially considering he was never really planning on getting what he wanted directly from Jeff. Once again, he had underestimated the youngest Tracy.

By the time Transom arrived, it was dark outside as it had taken her longer to get back to the warehouse they were hiding in because he wanted her to make sure that she wouldn’t be followed.

“I’ve got it.” Transom announced as she entered the building.

“Perfect.” The Hood exclaimed as he stood up from his chair as did Mullion who was sitting across the room.

“You weren’t followed, correct?” The Hood checked.

“Not at all.” Transom confirmed.

“Then check to make sure Jeff has held up his end of the bargain. Once we know he has, get the SUV ready to go. We will need to get out of here as fast as we can and get as far away as we can before I fulfill my end of the bargain.” The Hood told them. Transom quickly did as she was told and plugged the drive into the computer and opened it up to view the file.

The minute she clicked it however, the computer screen froze and high pitched noise sounded. Then the screen started flashing colours at them randomly.

“What’s happening?” The Hood demanded, already starting to realize that something in his plan had indeed gone sideways.

“I, I don’t know.” Transom answered as she started typing, trying to fix whatever the problem was. It was then that they heard the sirens of police cars heading towards them.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Scott wished that the agent driving the SUV he and his father were in would drive a lot faster. It didn’t take very long before the locator on the flashdrive to stop moving, sending out its signal from one spot. When they looked at the location on the satellite image, they saw it was an abandoned warehouse five miles outside of the city. Not long after they were on the road, the computer virus also appeared, the signal also coming from the same spot.

It took a some arguing and debating, the FBI Director finally agreed that Scott and Jeff could come along to where the locator and computer virus said the Hood, and Alan was. Cardinal argued that it wasn’t safe and they weren’t agents, but Jeff made it clear that he was going to get his son, and Scott used the fact that he did have military training to come along as well.

“You sure you can’t go any faster?” Scott asked the driver. Jeff shot a look at his oldest but didn’t say anything. He was just as worried and anxious as his son was.

“Trust me, if I could go any faster, I would.” The Agent replied, having a pretty good idea what the oldest members of the Tracy family was going through. He had a several cases with parents worried over their children and he couldn’t fault them for wanting to get their family member back as soon as possible.

Suddenly, the two other FBI SUV’s ahead of them started to slow down as the abandoned warehouse that the locator was broadcasting its signal from appeared in front of them. The driver stopped the vehicle and got out along with Jeff and Scott. The other agents in the other SUV’s also got out and immediately headed towards the building while Director Cardinal came over to them.

“You two need to stay here. We don’t know how many are inside or the situation in the building yet.” The Director ordered them. Scott was about to object, but felt his Dad’s hand on his shoulder, silently telling him to stay put. Reluctantly, he did as he was told.

For the next few minutes, Scott and Jeff waited with baited breath. So far, everything seemed to be going good, if silence was anything to go by. The only noise that they heard was the distant siren of the ambulance that was making its way to the warehouse. There weren’t any gunshots, explosions, or yelling which was always good, right? The more time that passed, the more anxious and fearful Jeff and Scott felt. The former military pilot started pacing up and down the line that had been set up in case any civilians, as unlikely as it was, showed up.

It was then that Scott saw something at the side of the building, specifically, someone making their way out of the building through another exit. It was dark outside, so Scott couldn’t get a very clear look, but he could see the man was tall and well muscled, and he wasn’t wearing the protective gear that the FBI was wearing. Once he stepped more outside, the brunette could see that it wasn’t an agent at all, it was one of the men who had attacked Tracy Island a year ago, one of the Hood’s minions, the one they called Mullion. A surge of rage flooded the man’s body and he ran towards him.

Scott didn’t even hear his Dad or the Director calling after him. It was like he had tunnel vision that was completely red. He wasn’t even sure if Mullion realized that he had been spotted and someone was coming after him. If he did, he realized it too late because Scott immediately tackled him to the ground. Once he lifted his head, seeing that he was right on who it was, the oldest brother gripped Mullion’s shirt and lifted his clenched fist and punched him hard in the face. Then he punched him again, and again, and again.

“Scott! Scott stop!” Scott barely heard his father yelling at him. All he could think about was hurting the man who had hurt his family, who had hurt his baby brother. It wasn’t until someone grabbed his arm mid-punch did he look away from Mullion to see his Dad right there beside him, holding his limb in a tight grip.

“Scott, stop. Alan needs us right now. Let the FBI deal with him.” Hearing his Dad say his brother’s name broke through his anger-filled fog and Scott looked down at Mullion.

The man was obviously unconscious. His face was already starting to swell from all of the punches it received and there was blood running down his nose and all over his mouth. Scott let go of his hold on Mullion’s shirt and stood up, his Dad helping him as he was still holding Scott’s arm. An FBI agent quickly came over to deal with Mullion as Scott turned his attention to his Dad.

“Where’s Alan?” Scott asked, his voice desperate.

“They found him inside. The paramedics are getting ready to go in now.” The Director came over to inform. Scott was already tackling Mullion and Jeff and the agent that went with him when Andrew got the call over the walkie talkie that they found Alan. Scott and Jeff didn’t need to hear anymore before they rushed towards the building and went inside. They had waited long enough to be reunited with their missing family member.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Alan had no idea what was going on anymore. He was still all alone in the room, but that was okay with him. There was no one to beat him up right now, and that was just fine with him. He felt bad enough as it was. He could hear as well as feel his blood pumping through his body, making the injuries he already had throb painfully. His skin felt like it was on fire and his stomach was constantly churning, threatening to vomit.

It wasn’t until he heard the annoying squeak of the door hinge did Alan try to pay attention to what was going on. If he was about to be beaten again, he need to prepare himself for it, but the two people who came inside the room weren’t anyone he recognized. One of them came over to him and crouched down right in front of him. Alan was pretty sure that the person was talking to him, but he couldn’t make sense of it. He just wanted to go to sleep. It was better when he was asleep and wasn’t feeling anything.

Loud shouts suddenly filled the room. Alan instinctively flinched at the loudness, but he recognized the voices, voices he had heard all throughout his entire life. His Dad and oldest brother. Before he could blink, they were in front of him, taking the other person’s place. Even though their figures were blurry and out of focus, he could recognize them easily.

The relief that both Jeff and Scott felt at seeing Alan alive and now safe immediately died when they saw how terrible he looked. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin flushed, left eye swollen, blood covering his mouth and chin, three long scrapes on his cheek, bruises on his neck, and that was just his face and neck. When they looked him over more, they easily spotted the knife sticking out of Alan’s left hand, the swelling in his wrist, and the blood on the tips of his fingers on his left hand. Looking down at the ground, they found the teenager’s fingernails on the floor.

Jeff turned his attention back to his boy, feeling sick at the sight of his baby’s nails discarded on the floor in tiny pools of blood. Alan however didn’t seem to be fully aware of what was going on. When Jeff placed his hand on the side of the teenager’s face as gently as possible, scared to hurt him, he felt the unnatural heat of his skin and knew that his son most likely wasn’t mentally with them.

Scott moved to crouch down more on Alan’s right side, placing his hand on his brother’s shoulder to let him know that he was there. After seeing how badly his brother was treated, tortured, he wished that he had killed Mullion while he was still punching him. But he couldn’t think about that now, not when his little brother needed them to get him to safety.

Not long after Jeff and Scott came into the room where Alan was being kept, two paramedics with a stretcher joined them. The paramedics, a man and a woman, quickly rushed over to the boy who need their attention, gently pushing Jeff who was on his knees in front of his son to the side so they could get closer to their patient.

“He’s got a fever.” Jeff informed the medics. The man went to Alan’s left side, looking at the most obvious injuries while the woman crouched down by Jeff into of the teenager.

“Not surprising if this knife had been in his hand for a while.” The female paramedic replied.

“Kate, the knife is directly into the metal. Going to have to pull the knife to get it out so we can move him.” The other medic stated as he cut the zip-tie restraining Alan’s left hand to the arm of the chair.

“Isn’t that going to hurt him?” Jeff asked, scared at the idea of putting his son through any more pain. The medic, Kate, beside him gave him a sympathetic smile.

“We will try and numb is hand as best we can, but we can’t give him anything because we don’t know for sure what he had been drugged with.” She told the father. She and her partner had been informed of the details of the case when they were called and were told about the very high possibility that the victim had been injected with experimental drugs.

Jeff and Scott were then pushed further away from Alan to the paramedics could work on freeing Alan, and they hated every minute of it. Logically they both knew that Alan needed them more right now given how badly he was injured, but after everything that happened to him over the last few days, they felt the need to stay right by his side. Unfortunately, logic won that argument.

They waited impatiently as the paramedics wiped Alan’s left in with a topical anesthetic wipe to numb up his hand and the zip-ties restraining him to the chair. Once that was done, they gently started pulling on the knife. During the time before, Alan didn’t really react to what was going on. But when the knife started moving, he flinched and gasped in pain. Scott was immediately at his brother’s side which their Dad quickly following. With his Dad and older brother comforting him, the knife was pulled out of the metal and Alan was free.

Deciding that it could be risky to pull the knife all the way out of Alan’s hand as they didn’t know for sure what damage was done, the paramedics wrapped the now bleeding injury around the knife as best as they could. They then slipped a splint onto Alan’s wrist which was more difficult do to the weapon but managed to get it to fit. After that, they deemed Alan secure enough to get him onto the stretcher and into the ambulance, as they could examine him there while getting him into the hospital.

Scott was right there, helping them move his little brother onto the gurney while Jeff circled around to the other side and they headed out of the building. Once outside though, another problem arose. Only one person could ride in the ambulance.

Though he didn’t want to, Jeff opt to stay behind and let Andrew drive him to the hospital as there was some more detail that they needed to address. How to deal with the Hood who was now in the FBI’s custody, call his other sons and tell them that their brother was found, what to tell the public, all of which could all be dealt with on the drive. Scott didn’t need any reasons from his Dad though. He was in the back of the ambulance the second his Dad told him to go with Alan.

As the ambulance drove away with both of his sons, Jeff took a deep breath, finally feeling some sense of relief after the last, what was it, four days? Five? Everything had passed in such a blur of fear and determination that Jeff didn’t really know. But he quickly reminded himself that not everything was okay yet and he headed over to Andrew’s car where he was already waiting, and they rushed to the hospital.


	11. Recovery

The minute Jeff contacted the island to let them know that Alan had been found and was being brought to the hospital, John, Virgil, and Gordon immediately rushed to Washington as fast as they could. Even when they arrived at the hospital, they ran through the parking lot at top speed. They would’ve run through every hallway on every floor of the hospital to find their youngest brother, but luckily, their father was waiting for them near the entrance.

“Dad! How’s Alan?” Gordon asked, running up to his father, his older brothers right on his tail.

“Is he okay?” Virgil asked over top of Gordon.

“Where’s Alan?” John questioned before Virgil could even finish speaking. Jeff then made a gesture with his hands, telling them to quiet down.

“Alan’s in surgery right now. The doctor was optimistic, but we don’t know the extent of his condition yet.” Jeff explained, but the worried look in his eyes didn’t do anything to calm down his three sons.

“What about the Hood? Did the FBI get him?” John wondered, hating the idea that the man who had caused their family, especially the youngest member so much pain still free. Jeff nodded.

“Yes. He, Mullion, and Transom were all arrested and are being dealt with. Penny is also having some MI6 agents flying over to help out with them. Come on, we can talk more in the private waiting room the hospital staff set up for us.” Jeff told them, then started walking towards the elevators with his sons following him.

When the elevator stopped at one of the top floors, they all got off and continued following their father to the waiting room. As soon as they got there, they saw Scott sitting on one of the sofas that filled the room. There was also a mini fridge and a cot in the room, but not much else. The minute the door was closed, the three newcomers turned to face their father.

“Did the doctors say anything else about Alan?” Virgil directed the question to their Dad. Before Jeff could respond though, Scott spoke up.

“He has a broken wrist, and they think a few broken fingers. He had also been stabbed in his hand, and all of his fingernails on his left hand were ripped off.” Scott’s voice sounded a mix of exhaustion and horror, like he was still struggling to process what the medics had all said in the ambulance and what he had seen for himself.

If he had been looking at his younger brother’s faces, he would’ve seen the complete fear and horror his revelation had just caused them, but he didn’t. He was staring at the ground, unaware of exactly what he said and how he said it. Gordon and Virgil stared at the oldest sibling while John actually went over and sat down beside Scott.

“Allie’s tough. He’ll be alright.” John directed his assurance to Scott, though he did also look at his other two brothers, trying to assure them as well.

When the brunette didn’t respond, John put his hand on Scott’s shoulder, effectively getting his attention. Scott looked around the room, finally seeming to notice who was now in the room and what he had just said. Seeing the terrified looks on Virgil’s and Gordon’s faces, he immediately apologized.

“Sorry, I’m sorry. John’s right, Alan will be okay. The paramedics and the doctors didn’t seem overly worried.” Scott said earnestly, trying to make up for what he told them. Gordon didn’t look to convinced, but Virgil seemed to be thinking it over.

Being the medic of the family, Virgil thought about the injuries Scott had listed. A broken wrist and broken fingers were considered easy and simple surgeries, though it depended on what kind of a break they were dealing with and how exactly it was caused. Like, if a bullet had broken the bone and got stuck inside, that surgery would take longer then if someone fell and the bone just need to be put back in place. It would also depend if metal plates had to be inserted or not.

Missing fingers wouldn’t even need surgery, unless something got stuck in one of the fingers and had to be taken out. Or if there was an infection that needed to be drained, but that would be finished with antibiotics and an IV hook up to drain it. A stab wound in the hand however, would depend which part of the hand it entered, if there was a major vein or artery hit, or if it had hit and broke a bone. As Virgil listed all of the scenarios in his head, he quickly did the math then turned to face Jeff.

“How long as he been in surgery?” Virgil asked his Dad, knowing roughly how long it would take it to fix Alan’s injuries. If it was longer than what it should be, then he knew that there were other injuries or issues that they didn’t know about yet.

Jeff glanced down at his watch before answering, “About, four and a half hours.”

That settled it. There was definitely something else that was happening with his youngest brother. However, there wasn’t anything any of them good do right now but wait. So Virgil went over and sat down on the sofa beside the one John and Scott were sitting on. Gordon followed in suit while their Dad sat down in the chair beside the door, waiting for a doctor or nurse to come in and let them know what was going on with Alan.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

It wasn’t long after John, Virgil, and Gordon had arrived at the hospital, no more than half an hour, when the door to the waiting room opened and a middle-aged woman with brown hair pulled into a bun and wearing scrubs came inside.

“Mr. Tracy?” She said as everyone looked at her. Jeff came to stand in front of her and she lifted her hand to shake the Tracy patriarch’s as she introduced herself, “I’m Dr. Alyse Davis. I’m the doctor assigned to your son.”

“How is he? Is he going to be okay?” Jeff immediately demanded with a worried filled tone.

She smiled sympathetically, then glanced at the sofas in the room as she said, “Why don’t we sit down?”

Though the worry and fear the five Tracy family members were feeling was growing with every passing second, they all sat down on the sofas that were in the waiting room, instinctively leaning forward so they could hear the doctor clearly. Dr. Davis waited until they were settled before she spoke.

“First off, your son is stable and will make a complete recovery.” The sighs of relief were clear and audible. Again, she waited, this time for the family to process what she just told them, the n continued, “His left wrist was broken, along with his index and middle fingers of his right hand. Five of his ribs were also broken, two on his right side, three on his left, and his kneecap is cracked. We have set the broken bones, put a cast on his wrist, metal splints on his fingers and wrapped his ribs. He will have to wear a brace on his knee while his kneecap heals, and he will have to do some physical therapy for his wrist, but he will heal from that.”

“We also, of course, removed the knife from his left hand. Luckily, it didn’t hit any bones, but since the knife went right through and his wrist is broken, he’s going to have to be very careful with that hand. His fingernails will grow back, though it will take a couple of weeks during which, again, he will have to be careful and not get them caught in anything and keep them covered. He also has a concussion due to several punches to the head and will need lots of rest.” Dr. Davis explained, trying to stress that despite how terrible it was to hear of how injured the young teenager was and knowing the reason why, that he would ultimately be okay.

With every injury Alyse listed, she could see the faces of her patient’s family become paler and paler, despite her assurance that Alan would make a complete recovery. While she wished she could end her list now, she had four more things to add.

“Alan also has developed an infection due to the knife in his hand. It doesn’t appear to be extremely serious, but he does have a fever and we are keeping him in observation until it clears up. Now, the drugs that he had been injected with appear to have already left his system. I talked to the doctors who were in charge of the lab that they were taken from and they confirm that it shouldn’t have any long term affects. He is also malnourished and dehydrated, but we are taking care of that through an IV until he wakes up and can eat and drink himself. I know this sounds like a lot, but I have full confidence that your son will make a complete recovery.” The doctor finally finished.

The Tracy men were still struggling to come to terms with everything Alan had apparently gone through and still was going through when Dr. Davis asked them if they wanted to see the teenager. In somewhat of a stunned daze, the family followed her towards a hospital room that had an armed FBI agent standing outside, making sure that no one threat would make its way into the room. Jeff quickly explained his presence to his sons before they went inside.

As each and every member entered the room, they were all stunned at how small and fragile and hurt Alan looked lying on the hospital bed. It was harder for John, Virgil, and Gordon since they hadn’t seen their little brother in the warehouse, all bloody and tied to a metal chair with a knife sticking out of his hand, but the sight of him in a hospital bed, unconscious, pale skin but with red cheeks, and tubes sticking out of his arms was still hard for Jeff and Scott.

Slowly, the five Tracy’s moved to surround the bed. For a moment, they stood in silence before Jeff pulled a chair that was sitting against the wall over to the bed and sat down, gently laying his hand over Alan’s right hand. Since there was an IV in that hand, Jeff didn’t dare grip it, just in case he accidentally dislodged the needle or hurt his son.

“When will he wake up?” Gordon asked the doctor, looking at her over his shoulder. He hoped the answer was soon. The sight of his little brother, so full of life and light, energetic and fun now unconscious and still unnerved him. His partner in crime was never so still.

Dr. Davis, who had been standing by the door then came over to them and said, “He most likely float in and out of consciousness for the next couple of days. He is sleeping through the sedative we gave him before we brought him in for surgery, and the painkillers he’s on are also somewhat keeping him under. Due to his fever though, he most likely won’t be fully aware of what’s going on. As soon as the infection and fever are gone, we’ll slowly start weaning him off the pain meds, and then we will be able to release him.”

All the conscious Tracy’s nodded, letting her know that they heard her, but didn’t say anything.

“The waiting room you were in before is all yours if any of you want to get some sleep but don’t want to leave the hospital.” Dr. Davis informed them.

“Thank you doctor.” Jeff replied. With a promise to check in later, she left the family alone while she went back to work.

For the rest of the night, the five Tracy members all took their spots around the room, mostly around the bed where the sixth and youngest member was currently lying, still fast asleep. Well, unconscious was more like it. Scott was sitting in a chair on the other side of Alan’s bed, John standing against the window, looking at the bed, Virgil sitting in a chair near the foot of the bed while Gordon actually sat on the bed by Alan’s feet, arms wrapped around his legs. They waited in silence for any sign of Alan waking up, but when the sun started to rise, Jeff looked at his other sons. They were all still awake, but from the look of, it wouldn’t be long before they finally succumbed to exhaustion.

He knew he was exhausted, and he knew Scott was too. The last four days, they would spend their days at the FBI, early mornings and late nights, trying to find Alan. And when they did finally go to the hotel, neither of them got much sleep. It was almost impossible to get any rest while consumed with the knowledge that Alan was being held hostage by the Hood. From the dark circles under John, Virgil, and Gordon’s eyes, and the yawns that they tried to cover, it wasn’t any easier to get any sleep at Tracy Island.

“You boys should go get some sleep. It’s been a long couple of days, and they aren’t going to be getting any shorter any time soon. You all need your rest.” Jeff stated, looking at his sons.

“Your one to talk Dad. You’re probably more tired than the rest of us.” Scott pointed out.

“Still, you boys need some sleep. Why don’t you all go to the waiting room and get a couple of hours of sleep?” Jeff suggested. With everything that happened and was happening with Alan, the last thing he need was his other sons getting sick from exhaustion.

“Dad, if anyone should be getting any sleep, it should be you and Scott. You two are the ones who have been the most busy. We didn’t get any calls for rescues or anything, we have more energy than you.” John replied. He didn’t mention that his two younger brothers that were on the island with him didn’t get much sleep, but despite that, they hadn’t been burning off energy like their oldest brother and their father.

“I’m not leaving.” Scott declared, shooting John a small glare before turning his gaze back to Alan. Logically, he knew that his immediate younger brother was right and that he had a point, but there was no way he was leaving his baby brother alone. Not until Alan himself woke up and tell them that he was okay.

As if the youngest somehow knew what the oldest was thinking, everyone in the room heard a small groan coming from the figure laying in the bed. Immediately, all attention turned to the teenager who was now slowly moving his head.

“Alan? Allie, can you open your eyes?” Jeff asked gently. He lifted his hand and went to lay it on his baby’s head, but the minute he touched Alan, the blonde was turning his head away, almost like he was flinching. Jeff immediately stopped, stunned at his son’s reaction.

“Sprout, are you awake?” Scott wondered. Alan’s only answer was a quiet moan and the turning of his head away from Scott, just like he had done with his father only moments earlier. Then, he fell silent and his breathing evened out again. He had fallen back asleep.

With a sigh, Jeff leaned back in his chair and resumed his watch on his youngest son, as did his other sons. He didn’t bring up their earlier conversation of sleep as he now knew that with Alan’s near-waking up, they wouldn’t be leaving, just in case he did fully wake up. The father still believed that his four oldest sons should get some sleep, but for now, he wouldn’t push it. For now, they just sat and waited.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Like Dr. Davis said, Alan drifted in and out of consciousness. There would be times he would move his head or one of his hands, he’d groan, sometimes he’d mumble incoherently, every now and then he’d open his eyes, but he never responded to their voices when they tried to get his attention. The times when his eyes did open, they were completely dazed with fever, clearly telling them that he wasn’t aware of what was going on. At least, not fully.

Dr. Davis assured them that it was normal, as he still had a high fever and was on the painkillers and antibiotics, but they still worried every time he pulled away from them when he was awake. Luckily though, his fever was going down and the doctor said that his infection was starting to clear up. It wouldn’t be long before he become coherent.

During this time though, the family moved in shifts. At least two or three of them would be in the hospital room with Alan while the rest was either getting some sleep in the waiting room, or getting food, or contacting the island and keeping them up to date. Fermat and Tin-Tin both wanted to come see their friend but their parents, and Jeff told them no. Neither of them wanted to see Alan in the hospital looking so vulnerable and they weren’t sure of how Alan would react when he woke up with a huge group of people around him, so just his family stayed with him for now while IR was put out of commission until the teenager recovered.

Five days after Alan was rescued, Scott, Gordon, and Virgil were in the room with Alan while John was getting some sleep and their Dad was making some calls. He was wanted to keep up to date with what was going on with the Hood and how the FBI and MI6 were going to proceed given that he now had more charges brought against him and what to tell the press since Alan’s kidnapping was made public. Only Virgil and Gordon were awake in the room though.

Scott had fallen asleep the chair by Alan’s bed only about an hour after he came in. It was his turn to get some sleep last night, but they knew he probably only got an hour or two, three at most. Being the oldest sibling had that effect on a person. They were more responsible in personality (usually), and felt that need to take care of the younger siblings much more strongly than the others would. And given that Scott had spent his early teenagers years to young adulthood being a pseudo parent, he felt the responsibility of a parent mixed in with his oldest brother responsibility, especially when is came to Alan, as he was the youngest and the one that Scott practically raised after their mother’s death.

Knowing that their older brother needed some sleep, Virgil and Gordon kept quiet so they wouldn’t wake him. They were both happy to see him getting some, even if it wasn’t in the most comfortable position. From the way Scott’s head was lying on his shoulder, they both knew he would have a painful crick in his neck when he woke up. Neither of them spoke, both using Scott’s sleeping form as an excuse. Ever since their fight five days ago, they barely said a word to each other, though they both wanted too. They just didn’t know what to say.

Eventually, it was Gordon who broke the silence. Everyone who knew him knew he wasn’t a fan of silence, nor was he a fan of sitting around doing nothing. That fact that he was doing both and had been for three days was really starting to get to him.

“Virg, I’m sorry, about what I said. For calling you a robot and said you didn’t care. I was just, freaked out, and upset you weren’t freaking out. I keep forgetting that you’re not usually one to freak out. You deal with it differently.” Gordon said, his head slightly bowed in shame. Admitting he was wrong and apologizing, especially when it was sincere, wasn’t something he was overly fond of doing.

“I know. It’s okay. I’m sorry too, for getting so mad.” Virgil replied, putting his arm around the redhead’s shoulders.

“You had every right to be mad.” Gordon easily excused the medic’s behavior. With how he had been acting and with what he said, he deserved to get yelled out. The two didn’t say anything for a moment, easily going back into the silence they were in both, though a much less awkward one.

“It’s about d*mn time.” The two jumped at the sound of Scott’s voice. They looked over and saw his blue eyes cracking open as he gave them a half smile.

He hadn’t really fallen asleep, though he had been close when he heard his younger brothers talking. He was fully aware that they hadn’t been on speaking terms since they had their fight and he was grateful that they finally got their heads back on straight. Gordon opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, a low groan coming from the figure on the bed caught their attention.

Alan was turning his head a little before he opened his baby blue eyes. This time however, they were far more alert than they had been any other time, though there was still some confusion in them. Scott immediately laid hand on Alan’s arm, just above his cast while Gordon went over to the blonde’s other side and Virgil went to go get their Dad, John, and the doctor.

“Alan? Can you hear me?” Scott asked, hoping that since one of the nurses had told them that his fever had gone down considerably that he was fully awake and alert this time.

Alan slowly turned his head, seeing Scott sitting beside him. Very slowly, he nodded. He regretted it though when he felt his head start to throb in protest to the movement. He closes his eyes instinctively, but they fly open when he feels a hand touch his shoulder and he jerks it away, his thoughts whispering, _don’t let them touch, it will hurt, touching causes pain_.

A part of Alan knew that his thoughts were wrong. He remembers that it was because of the drug Transom had given him, that it was just some terrible hallucinations, but that part of him wasn’t in control. What was in control, was the fear and determination that had taken over while he was with the Hood. And that part of him was saying, _don’t say anything and don’t let them touch you_.

Alan could see Scott’s face take on a worried and confused expression before he lowered his hand. But the door to the room flew open before he could say anything about it. Suddenly, his Dad was there, right by Scott, though closer to the bed. Then John, though he walked around to the other side of the bed. Then Virgil, then a lady that Alan didn’t recognise wearing a white lab coat over top a pair of dark blue scrubs. Alan tensed when he saw her.

“Hello Alan, nice to see you awake and alert.” The lady, whom Alan assumed was a doctor, said with a bright smile. Alan didn’t relax though.

“My name is Dr. Alyse Davis. I’m the one who operated on you to help you get better.” She explained, quickly spotting the tension in her patient’s body and the guarded expression in his eyes.

“Now, I just need to ask you a few questions, if that’s alright.” Alan waited for her questions, but soon realized that she was waiting for permission. Again, very slowly, Alan nodded, giving her permission to ask.

“What is your full name?” Dr. Davis asked. _Don’t say anything_ , the voice inside Alan’s head reminded him, though now he was confused. This question didn’t seem so bad, like could hurt anyone. Besides, his family was here, surely they would’ve told her what his name was. What was the harm in answering her?

“Alan Shephard Tracy.” Alan’s voice was little more than a croak, most likely because of dryness and disuse.

Then, the was a cup in front of him. Alan’s eyes followed the hand that was holding it to see Virgil standing by his head on his right side. The teenager lifted his head and took a few sips, before lowering it back down on the pillow.

“Better?” Dr. Davis wondered. She had been about to go grab the cup of water herself when one of Jeff Tracy’s sons beat her to it. She waited until she saw Alan nod before she resumed her asking her questions.

“Do you know who just gave you a drink of water?” She made the questions fairly simple. The only reason she was asking was to see how much Alan’s concussion was affecting him and his memory. After three days of rest, she was hoping it would be a lot better than if he had been alert enough for her to ask on the day he arrived. Alan gave her the same look as before when she asked for his name. A look that seemed to say, _why are you asking me that_.

But just like before, he answered, “Virgil, my brother.”

After asking a few more simple questions, Alyse decided to move on to a more challenging one, “Do you remember what happened to you?”

Alan stared hard at here, immediately tensing up again. He had somewhat relaxed over the last few minutes, but now he most definitely was not. Alyse knew that meant he at least remembered some of it. She waited for an answer, but Alan didn’t speak again. He turned his head away, then gave a small nod that she could barely see.

“It’s alright Alan. You’re safe now. Why don’t you get some more rest and we can talk later, when you’re feeling better?” Dr. Davis suggested. The blonde again, kept silent, but this time, he didn’t even nod. She couldn’t blame him though.

It wasn’t the first time she had taken care of an adolescent who had been abused and just like the rest of them, he did not want to talk about any of it whatsoever. Just as she turned to talk to the boy’s father, she saw one of the brothers, Scott, she believed, put his hand on Alan’s shoulder. Alan however, immediately shrugged it off and curled up more, getting a little further away from him.

“What’s going on with him?” Jeff demanded in a quiet tone, so not to disturb his youngest. Over the last few days, Alan had somewhat turned away from anyone who tried to comfort him, but they figured it was the result of the fever and drugs, trapping him in memories of being beaten. Now that he was awake and knew that he was safe, none of them really understood why he was still turning them away.

“Unfortunately Mr. Tracy, it’s to be expected and probably will happen for a while. Even though Alan had only been held hostage for a few days, he spent those days being beaten and tortured. It appears he is still in that mindset and most likely well be for a while. I know you all want to comfort him, but you should take is slow on the touching, at least, until he feels more comfortable and safe.” Dr. Davis explained. Jeff nodded as he turned to look back at Alan, who had fallen asleep yet again.

As the doctor left the room, Jeff moved to sit on the edge of the bed. While he understand what Dr. Davis had told him, it didn’t mean it was easy to hear or process. The fact that his baby had gone through so much pain and abuse that he expected to be hurt from his own family, and all in only four days.

“This really isn’t going to be an easy fix at all, is it?” Gordon wondered from his spot at the foot of the bed. He already knew the answer, but he was hoping that he was wrong. When he saw his Dad shake his head, Gordon sighed and moved to sit on one of the chairs that was sitting against the wall. Nobody else said anything. They just sat waited, wanting to be there for the Alan when he woke up again.


	12. Heading Home

After Alan had woken up, nearly fever free and coherent for the first time, he started waking up more, slowly getting back on to a normal schedule, sleeping during most of the night and being awake during the day. Despite that though, Alan barely spoke, at all, to anyone. If anyone asked him a question, he would answer with one or two words, or would just shrug his shoulders. To say his family and Dr. Davis were concerned was a major understatement.

Not long after Alan’s apparent withdrawn behavior became obvious, Dr. Davis called Jeff out of the room and gave him the phone number to a psychologist who dealt specially with kidnapped victims, encouraging him to give her a call. Jeff kept the phone number, but he had no idea if whether or not he should call her.

The father knew first hand how helpful talking to a profession could be. He had gone and seen one after Lucy’s death. The only problem though, was International Rescue. Alan had been kidnapped because of their family business, as well as for revenge for what happened last year, which also involved the Thunderbirds. Being a major part of why his youngest was taken in the first place, it would be bound to come up. How could he trust a complete stranger, professional or not, patient confidentiality or not, with that information?

So, for the time being, Jeff decided to keep this in the family. He hoped that with time, and once they got back Alan back home, he would start to open up to them and they would be able to help him get through this. Right now though, Alan was keeping himself distant from them. He still wasn’t talking and he still wasn’t really letting them touch him at all, not unless he had to.

It wasn’t long until Dr. Davis had Alan try to walk around the room. Normally, she would have given Alan a pair of crutches to help him with his knee, but with a cast of his left wrist and with metal splints on his two broken fingers on his right hand, there was no way he’d be able to use them. So instead, she and one of the nurses helped him. She then told the family that though Alan would need help and would still need to take it easy, he had to start walking around to get his leg strength back.

After that though, Alan proved to still have the Tracy family stubbornness when Scott came into his room to see the blonde getting up without any help. John and Gordon had gone back to the island to get Brains back from Thunderbird 5, which would be put on automatic, leaving Scott and Virgil with their Dad and Alan. While Scott was still worried about his little brother, a part of him was glad to see something normal from Alan.

“Where you going Sprout?” Scott asked as he came into the room. Alan jumped a little at the sound of his brother’s voice, but he somewhat managed to calm himself down, at least enough to answer.

“Bathroom.” Alan said simply, nodding his head towards the door on the other side of the hospital room. An understanding look came on the brunette’s face as he walked over to the bed.

“Here, I’ll give you hand. You still have to be careful with your knee kiddo.” Scott told him as he reached the teenager’s side. He then held out his arm and waited for Alan to take it. The blonde started to lift his arm, but then stopped and shot his older brother a suspicious look.

“Don’t worry, I’ll just help you to the door.” Scott assured him. Though his heart was cracking at the sight of the distrustful look his baby brother was giving him, he forced his voice to remain steady and gentle. After all, they still knew nothing about what all happened when he was being held by the Hood or what all he had been through. They had to be patient with him.

Alan watched him for another moment before he slowly reached Scott’s hand and let him up him get off the bed. As soon as Scott was sure that the teenager had his footing, he slowly led him towards the bathroom, trying to be as gentle as possible considering Alan’s bruises and broken bones. Once they got there, Scott opened the door and let Alan go in by himself.

For the next few minutes, Scott waited for Alan to finish up so he could help him back to the bed. He wished there was something more he could do to help his little brother. It had been over a week since they found him, and five days since he woke up fever free but he still was so closed off. And he had this, almost dead look in his eyes that Scott had never seen before and he hated it. Logically, the former pilot knew that it would take longer for his brother to recover, but every second that Alan stayed quiet seemed like an eternity to the oldest. And Scott knew his Dad and his other brothers felt the same way.

Soon, the door opened and Alan slowly limped out of the bathroom. Again, Scott waited patiently for Alan to take his arm and let him help him towards the bed. Once there, Alan sat down then moved so he could lie down on the bed.

“Anything else you need Allie?” Scott wondered as he pulled the blanket over the teenager. Alan thought for a moment before he looked back at Scott.

“Home?” Scott felt another crack in his chest at the sound of the blonde’s voice. The usually loud, energetic, happy voice was so small and timid, almost fearful. The urge to pull his baby brother into his arms and hold tight came over him but Scott forced it down. He knew that Alan would not react well to that at all.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you home as soon as we can. I promise.” Scott replied with a reassuring smile. Alan nodded weakly before he closed his eyes and fell fast asleep. A part of the 25 year old wanted to run his hand through Alan’s blonde hair to comfort him, but again he stopped himself. As much as he hated it, he, and the rest of their family would just have to wait until Alan was ready.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

True to Scott’s word, a few days later, Alan was given the all clear to go home. While Jeff went to fill out the paperwork and get the car to take them their secret airport where Thunderbird 2 was waiting to take them home. John and Gordon had taken Thunderbird 1 back to the island. Scott and Virgil stayed with Alan to help him get dressed and get into the wheelchair one of the nurses had brought up.

“You ready to go Sprout?” Scott wondered once Alan was down on the wheelchair. Alan’s only response was a nod. Scott then immediately started to wheel him out of his hospital room with Virgil behind him.

“Good. Hey, you want me to do wheelies with your wheelchair?” Scott asked with a light-hearted tone. Alan however, only shook his head, giving off a somber and tired vibe that Scott quickly picked up on. So he pushed his brother out of the hospital in silence, Virgil right beside them.

With record time, they arrived at Thunderbird 2 and again, Virgil and Scott helped their little brother get inside the machine while their Dad parked the car.

“You wanna lie down on the gurney, or do you wanna sit up in the seat?” Virgil questioned. Even though Alan hadn’t moved that much in the grand scheme of things, he could see that the simple move from the hospital to their secret airport-like base had completely exhausted him.

“Seat.” Alan answered. After spending two weeks in a bed, he wanted to sit up for a while. Not too mention, gurney’s were not particularly comfortable.

Virgil helped him walk towards to the seats and helped him sit down in the one beside the chair where he would be sitting so he could keep an eye on him while Scott and their Dad closed the ramp and started getting Thunderbird 2 ready for take off. Alan sat down and tried to buckle the seat belt, but failed miserably due to his wrist and fingers. Without a word, Virgil reached over and buckled it for him before he sat down in his own seat and got settled. Jeff and Scott, who had watched in silence, then turned and started up the Thunderbird and they made their way home.

The entire ride was spent in silence. Jeff would look over at his youngest in concern every now and then, but Alan didn’t seem to notice. He didn’t seem to notice Virgil or Scott doing the same either. The teenager had a faraway look in his eyes and his head was turned to face the window. Since neither Jeff or Virgil didn’t know what to say, or had anything to say, they stayed quiet too. Before anyone knew it, they had arrived at the island.

“And we’re home.” Jeff declared once he had landed Thunderbird 2 and shut it down. That seemed to shake Alan out of his reverie. He jumped a little, then looked out the window, seeming to notice only now that the ride was over.

Virgil quickly got out of his seat and headed over to Alan to help him. As soon as he was free of the seatbelts, he let his brother help him up and out of the large machine, their Dad and Scott right behind them.

As soon as they existed the Thunderbird, Alan saw John and Gordon waiting for them, along with Fermat and Tin-Tin. A part of Alan was happy to see them, but the other part of him was suddenly reminded that now he was home, he was going to have a lot more people around and would try to get him to talk, which he wasn’t looking forward too.

The minute Alan was off the ramp that led down to the ground from Thunderbird 2, Fermat ran towards him. After spending a little more than three weeks worried about his best friend, he was so grateful to see him again, and happy that he was home. Tin-Tin followed, but a lot slower. When John and Gordon came home, they had told them about how withdrawn Alan was and how he didn’t want to be touched at all, but it appeared that Fermat had forgotten about it.

When Fermat reached Alan he instantly wrapped his arms around Alan.

“Missed you so much.” Fermat whispered, not seeming to notice how his friend had tensed up at the sudden contact. Alan forced himself to relax and he wrapped his free arm around Fermat’s shoulders.

“Missed you too.” Alan responded. He then let his arm drop and Fermat pulled away. He looked up at his friend with a bright smile, though it faded a little when Alan’s attempt to do the same didn’t even count as half a smile.

“Are you alright?” Tin-Tin asked, coming over to Alan. Seeming to be more aware of Alan’s fear of contact, she only slowly placed her hand on his shoulder, not even squeezing it to comfort him, then quickly pulled it away. Alan nodded, grateful that Tin-Tin didn’t throw herself at him like Fermat did. He didn’t blame him for doing that, but it did make him feel very uncomfortable.

“Okay guys, let’s get Alan settled first then you three can talk.” Jeff broke in. The three kids nodded and started to make their way out of the silos and up to the house.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

It didn’t take long for Tin-Tin and Fermat to realize how much Alan really didn’t want to talk or be touched. His quiet and withdrawn demeanor, so strange and different from his old behaviour quickly caught their attention. Despite that though, they still somewhat tried to engage him at the supper table. His Dad and brothers did too, though not as much. After seeing it for the past two weeks, they weren’t surprised and were giving him some of the space he wanted.

Though they didn’t try to have a conversation with him like Tin-Tin and Fermat were doing, Alan would’ve been an idiot if he didn’t catch the worried glances they were all shooting each other. He even saw Brains, Kyrano, and Onaha giving them to his Dad and brothers, and Alan wasn’t an idiot, despite what his brothers thought. He had been seeing it constantly since he woke up in the hospital and was sick of it. What he really wanted was to be alone, and when the sun finally fell, all it took was for him to say he was tired before his brothers and Dad jumped up and helped go to his bedroom.

All of them except Virgil left him along to change into his PJ’s, but came back in to make sure he was okay. They had seen how difficult it was for Alan to change in the hospital with a broken wrist, two broken fingers, broken ribs and a cracked kneecap. Virgil, being the medic and having experience since he had helped his other brothers when they had gotten injured before, stayed and helped him. Once he was in bed, the others came in to say goodnight.

“You comfortable son?” His Dad wondered, standing by Alan’s bedside. Alan nodded, though he didn’t feel comfortable. With all of his brothers and his Dad surrounding him, the room felt almost suffocating.

“Good.” His Dad responded, then asked with a quiet voice, “Do you want one of us to stay with you? Cause we can if you want.”

Alan immediately shook his head. The last thing he wanted or needed was to be watched by his family. Part of the reason he wanted to go home so bad was so he could have some privacy. He knew his family was only worried about him and wanted to help him, but he just wanted to be alone and try to process everything without his Dad and brothers watching him, babying him, judging him.

“If you’re sure.” Jeff replied. He then bent over, pressed a light kiss on Alan’s forehead and murmured, “Love you.”

His Dad then left the room and Scott came over to take his place. The brunette placed his hand near Alan’s, but didn’t touch him.

“See you in the morning Sprout. If you need anything, just holler.” Scott said with a smile, then he followed his Dad out of the room. Gordon and John also nodded, telling him that what Scott just said also applies to them, and then followed their older brother into the hallway. Virgil however, came over to him and bent down over him.

“Do you need any pain meds Allie?” Virgil questioned gently. Alan shook his head though. He was so tired he didn’t think he had any energy to feel pain. Not too mention, if he asked for some, it would only make them worry more.

“Alright. If you change your mind, just call me on your watch.” Virgil said. He then followed the rest of the family out of the bedroom, shutting the door behind them. As soon as they were gone, Alan turned onto his left side so his back was to the door and let the tears fall.

Alan wasn’t fully sure why he was crying. Maybe it was because he had tried so hard not to cry in pain when the Hood had Mullion torturing him that it was coming out now. Maybe it was because he was just finally reacting to everything that happened. Maybe it was because he really was as weak as he felt. No wonder his family had kept him away at school and away from the Thunderbirds for so long. Why would a family of heroes want a weakling like him? At least they weren’t around to see or hear him cry.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Unbeknownst to Alan, his brothers and Dad hadn’t just left his room and headed to their owns. They stayed by the shut door, wondering if maybe one of them should stay with him when they heard the sound of crying coming from the other side of the door. They then fell silent, wincing when a harsh sob suddenly broke through.

“I really thought he’d start getting better when we got him home.” Gordon stated with a despondent voice. He hated hearing his only younger brother cry and it only took one glance at his three older brothers and his Dad to see that they felt the same way. He could tell that he wasn’t the only one who wanted to go and comfort the youngest family member, but they all knew that Alan wouldn’t welcome it. He’d immediately put on a brave face and push them away, and as much as it sucked, he needed to let his emotions out, and if they needed to be out of the room for him to do it, then so be it.

“It’s only the first night. We just need to give him time.” Jeff tried to comfort his four oldest sons. Another heartbreaking sob came from the inside of Alan’s bedroom and each of them winced, all wishing there was something they could do to take the pan they knew Alan was going through away.

“I hate this.” Scott revealed, clenching his fists. He really wished he could’ve punched the Hood like he did Mullion. Even more actually.

“I do too boys, I do too.” Jeff replied. He instinctively put his hands in his pockets and fingered the slip of paper that was in his right-side pocket.

It was the phone number to the therapist that Dr. Davis had recommended that he took Alan to see. He hadn’t talked to Alan or his other sons about it yet, but at the rate things were going, he knew he would have to, and soon. Right now though, he just sat down on the floor and stared at Alan’s closed bedroom door. His other sons quickly followed his example and together, they waited in silence for Alan’s cries to quiet down, to let them know that he had finally fallen asleep. Needless to say, no one got much sleep that night.


	13. Chapter 13

Over the nest week, Alan didn’t get any better. Though he talked a little more, it wasn’t anywhere close to what was normal for him. Not to mention, the most of when he talked, it was directed to either Fermat or Tin-Tin. No one knew exactly why Alan was closing himself off from his family, but they all had their theories.

Jeff’s, that the Hood did something to make Alan turn himself away from them like he tried to do when he attacked island a year ago. Scott’s, that the Hood used his mind powers to mess Alan up. John’s, that Alan was trying to prove himself in some strange way. Virgil’s, was that it was possible that his head injuries, trauma, and the Hood’s powers had mixed together and caused some damage that he hadn’t found yet. And Gordon’s was a bit like John’s, that their little brother was trying to prove himself mixed in with the typical Tracy family stubbornness. Either way, they were all getting more and more worried about the teenager.

They grew even more worried when Fermat headed back to school. The younger teenager had gotten permission to stay at home until Alan was found and while he started to recover, but had to go back as he still had classes to finish. Fermat begged his Dad to let him finish the year on the island and while Brains did greatly consider it, unfortunately, it went against school policy to do so since nothing had happened to Fermat to affect his schooling, unlike Alan.

The adults wondered if they should push the issue with school as Fermat was best friends with Alan and lived with them, they could probably get away with it. Jeff and his four oldest also thought it might be better if Fermat stayed as he was one of the two people who Alan felt the most comfortable around and seemed to be more open with at the moment.

On the other hand, Jeff was starting to get worried at how withdrawn Alan was becoming from his family and decided that maybe Fermat leaving was a good idea, that it would help Alan open up to his family again. They did however decide to bring Fermat back almost every single weekend they could though. They knew Alan still needed his friends as much as possible.

Alan didn’t seem any happier than Fermat was about the situation, but he didn’t argue. He knew he wasn’t going to win and honestly, he was somewhat surprised that his Dad hadn’t made any plans to send him back either, or for him to even start doing some school work from home. His Dad must’ve been able to tell what he was thinking because he was quick to say that until he felt that Alan was ready, and that Alan himself felt he was ready, he would even bring up the school issue right now. The teenager tried to remain passive about it, but he was beyond grateful his Dad wasn’t going to send him back to school.

The worst problem with Alan’s recovery though made itself know a few days after he came home. With all the drugs, exhaustion, and injuries, Alan had been having usually dreamless nights, and if he did dream, it was just nonsense that he would easily sleep through. Once he was off a lot more of the drugs and his body was starting to heal, the nightmares started.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

_“Tell me Alan. Tell me now!” The Hood screamed in Alan’s face. He tried to move away but was tied down too tight. Then, Mullion was in front of him, slamming his fist into Alan’s face again._

_“No.” Alan whispered as he kept trying to break free. Then, Mullion and the Hood disappeared and his Dad and brothers stood in front of him, laughing as they started pointing at him and calling him names._

_“Weakling.”_

_“Baby.”_

_“Mistake.”_

_“Burden.”_

“AHHHHHH!” Alan screamed his head off as he shot up in his bed. Everything was blurry and dark and he was completely terrified. The door to his bedroom slammed open and a tall figure ran inside and hopped on the bed beside him.

“It’s okay Alan! It’s alright! You’re safe, you’re safe.” Scott told his youngest brother as he held him in his arms. He knew that he probably shouldn’t be touching Alan, not when he wasn’t sure if Alan was okay with it and not when he had no idea what he had dreamed of and what could set him off, but with the way his baby brother was shaking, all of his overprotective brother instincts went into overdrive.

Alan though soon got a hold of his breathing and pulled himself out of Scott’s arms. The brunette hesitated ever so slightly, but quickly let go of the teenager. Alan shifted so he had his back up against the headboard and curled up into a ball. Scott, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, turned his body so he could still face the blonde.

“Are you alright?” Scott asked, though he knew it was a dumb question, however he couldn’t think of anything else to ask at the moment.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Alan mumbled, ducking his head to lean his forehead against his knees. Scott wanted to call out the obvious lie, but didn’t. He knew that you couldn’t help someone until they were ready to admit that they needed help and were willing to accept it. And right now, it was clear that Alan wasn’t.

“Do you want me to stay with you?” Scott asked slowly and carefully. When Alan was a little kid and he’d have nightmares, he always stayed with one of his older brothers for the rest of the night. Thought Alan had long since stopped the habit, due to age, teenage stubbornness and Tracy stubbornness, Scott knew that whatever Alan had been dreaming about had been far worse than whatever he dreamed of when he was a kid.

“No, I’m fine.” Alan replied with a slightly harsh and bitter tone, angry that Scott suggested such a thing. He wasn’t a baby anymore. He didn’t need his brothers holding his hand and spending the night to ward off nightmares. That was for little kids.

“Okay. Just, let one of us no if you need anything.” Scott told him. He waited until he saw Alan give a short nod before he moved to get off the bed. He shot the blonde a reassuring smile that he hoped hid the worry he was feeling, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

The minute he was gone, all Alan felt was terror. He knew he should lie down and try and go back to sleep, but he knew that meant more nightmares and the last thing wanted was those. A part of him was already considering walking down the hall to Scott’s room and take up his offer, but he quickly shot down that idea. He wasn’t a kid anymore, he didn’t need his brothers’ help, nor did he need to give them any ammo they could use against him at a later date. No, he didn’t need help. He could do this on his own, he had too.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Scott closed the door to Alan’s bedroom, but kept his head close to the door and listened, trying hear what was going on the other side. He didn’t want to leave Alan alone after hearing him scream so bad, but he didn’t want to invade his brother’s privacy. That wouldn’t help get the teenager to open up to them.

He hadn’t really been sleeping. He had been drifting in and out of awareness ever since he went to bed, but the sound of screaming quickly got his attention and he got up and ran towards the source. He knew instantly that it was Alan, having learned to discern all of his brothers cries throughout his life of being the oldest, particularly his youngest brother.

He was at Alan’s room within seconds as his room was practically right next door. Alan was only eight years old when they moved to the island and since their Dad was still somewhat withdrawn from his family, especially Alan, Scott picked the bedroom beside Alan’s so he could be there quickly if his baby brother needed him. John, being the second eldest and the brother who helped Scott out the most took the room on the other side of Alan’s.

“Is he okay?” Scott turned to see both Gordon and John coming down the hallway, apparently also hearing Alan’s screams.

“He had a nightmare. He’s awake now and says he’s okay, but no, he’s definitely not.” Scott informed them as he fully turned and leaned back so his back was against the wall beside the door.

“You didn’t stay with him?” John was stunned that the overprotective pilot wasn’t still with Alan. It had been a while since Alan had some terrible nightmares, that he was aware of anyways, and whenever they did happen, one of them was always stay with him.

“He didn’t want me too. The minute he was aware enough to know what was happening he pushed me away.” Scott explained, a helpless look on his face.

“I was beginning to hope that he wouldn’t get any nightmares. I mean, it’s already been a few weeks since he was found and he hasn’t had any yet.” Gordon said, causing John and Scott to look over at him.

“It’s probably because the shock has finally started to wear off, not to mention he’s know completely off any and all painkillers which can affect how a person sleeps.” John pointed out to the swimmer.

“So, we’re going to be seeing, well, hearing a lot of this at night, aren’t we?” Gordon asked, though he already knew the answer from the looks on his older brothers faces.

“Yup. We’ll have to keep a closer eye on him, make sure he gets some actual, good, sleep, and keep him from falling asleep while walking or something like that. I’ll tell Dad, Virgil, and Tin-Tin tomorrow so they can also watch him.” Scott told them. They both nodded, agreeing with the brunette and started heading back to their own bedrooms.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

It was clear to Alan that morning, that everyone knew what had happened in the middle of the night. Tin-Tin tried to give him the opportunity to talk about it when it was just the two of them, but he quickly shot it down. His family was also shooting him more worried glances than before, but they didn’t say anything about it until he almost fell asleep on the couch while watching TV.

Virgil, who had been coming to get him for some physio for his knee, had seen him drifting off and said that they could do later if wanted to get more sleep. Alan quickly objected, saying once again that he was fine, and got up to follow his brother down to the infirmary.

Later on, Gordon then suggested that they do a movie night tonight. Alan immediately knew it was because his brothers wanted to keep an eye on him during the night, but when his Dad and Tin-Tin agreed it was a good idea, Alan was stuck going along with because he knew that if he protested, they would definitely push the issue.

So, later that night, Alan found himself forcing to stay awake during the movie instead of letting himself relax into the couch cushions and possibly fall asleep. He tried his best to concentrate on the plot of the movie, but the images and words were starting to drown out into nothing. He couldn’t even remember the name of the movie, all he knew was that it was slow and seemed to be purposely trying to get him to fall asleep. Seeing his brothers and Tin-Tin watching him from the corner of his eyes, he knew that was exactly the point of this, but he was too determined to let them trick him like this.

When the movie finally came to an end, Alan stood up and started walking into his room. Gordon immediately said they had another movie they wanted to watch, but Alan tried to get out of it by saying he was tired. John pointed out that he could sleep on the couch while they watched the next film, but Alan refuted his argument by saying he would be more comfortable and would sleep better in his own bed. He then turned and kept walking without giving anyone else the chance to protest.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

_“Talk you little brat!” Mullion yelled as he landed another punch on Alan’s face. The force of the blow whipped Alan’s head to the side and he realized that his left hand was free. Without thinking, he clenched his fist and slammed it into Mullion’s face._

“AH!” Alan screamed as he again shot up in bed, covered in a cold sweat. This time though, his left wrist was throbbing painfully. He held it close to his chest as the door suddenly burst open and Scott came in, running to the bed before sitting down, realizing that Alan had already awoken.

“It’s okay, it’s okay Sprout. It was just a nightmare.” Scott tried to comfort the blonde once he saw that he was awake. Alan however slightly shook his head and cradled his broken wrist to his chest while the tears continued running down his face. As Scott was talking, Alan quickly figured out what had happened. When he woke up, he didn’t realize it, but his left hand had been on the bedside table. He must’ve hit the table with his broken wrist.

“Hey, Sprout, what’s wrong?” Scott questioned, concerned laced in his face and visible all over his face. Through harsh sobs that he was struggling to get a hold of, Alan tried to answer.

“Wrist, hit, table.” Alan managed to get out while trying to breath more steadily so he could stop crying. Scott nodded, quickly piecing together what Alan was trying to say, then reached over to grab Alan’s wrist watch. Once he had it, he pressed the few buttons to call up Virgil. As Alan was still trying to get a hold of himself, he wasn’t able to protest when he realized what Scott was doing. Seconds later, Virgil arrived.

“You doing okay Sprout?” Virgil asked as he made his way over to the bed. Alan nodded, still sniffling, but didn’t say anything.

“How about we go down to the infirmary and get your wrist checked out, just to be safe. While we are there, I’ll get you some pain killers that will help you sleep.” Virgil suggested, though Alan knew he didn’t have a choice. He didn’t mind though. Pain killers sounded pretty good right now.

So, Alan got up and let Virgil take him down to the infirmary. He thought Scott was going to follow, but he didn’t, and Alan was grateful. It was bad enough that his oldest brother already kept seeing him having nightmares, and that he had injured himself enough to get both him and Virgil worried about him. He didn’t want anymore witnesses at all right now.

Once they reached the infirmary, Virgil helped Alan get up on the bed then went to get his state of the art medical scanner that could see even through the hard shell of the cast. The medic quickly scanned Alan’s broken wrist and waited for the image to pop up on the screen.

“Well, doesn’t look like any more damage had been done. You’re good, besides the pain that is.” Virgil informed his youngest brother, giving him a smile while he did it. Alan nodded, but didn’t say anything. The dark brunette then headed over to the cabinet and grabbed a bottle of painkillers, took one small pill, as they were on the strong side, then put the bottle back and went to the sink to get a cup of water.

Once he had that, he went back to the teenager and handed the pill to Alan, waited until Alan put it in his mouth, then handed him the cup. When Alan was finished with the cup, he gave it back to Virgil, who put it on the table beside the bed. Instead of immediately encouraging Alan to go to sleep, Virgil hopped up on the bed beside the blonde.

“You know what I hate about my job?” Virgil asked randomly. Alan looked up at him surprised at the question, but shook his head in response.

“That though we have amazing technology and medications and vaccinations that can help save and cure millions of people all around the world, we have nothing for people who have been through trauma. We can’t just, give them a shot and magic pill and suddenly they wouldn’t be affected by whatever they went through, that they could go on with their lives without carrying all that weight around with them.” Virgil revealed. Alan sat silently for a moment, thinking it over.

“I thought it was the whole, not being able to save anyone thing.” Alan replied quietly. Virgil nodded, agreeing with what Alan thought. They all felt terrible whenever there was a rescue they were called too and wasn’t able to save everyone.

“Well, that certainly does suck. But, everyone has to go sometime and we can’t always control that. But it’s a lot harder to watch people continue to try and live their lives suffering in ways we can’t fully imagine and we can’t really do much about it. We don’t have a shot or magic pill that could take it all away.” Virgil explained.

“Would be nice if we did though.” Alan muttered, looking down at the floor. Virgil stared at his little brother for a moment, wanting to put his arm around the teenager’s shoulders, but didn’t. No one was quite sure how he would react anymore.

“Yeah, it really would.” Virgil said simply. They fell into an easy silence which was quickly broken when Alan yawned loudly. Slowly, Virgil placed his hand on Alan’s shoulder as he stood up and gently pushed him to lie down on the mattress. Luckily, Alan didn’t seem upset with the medic touching him. He just layed down and closed his eyes.

“Night Alan. I’ll stay, don’t worry.” Virgil whispered. The middle Tracy son then went over to the other end of the room to grab a chair, brought it over to Alan’s side and sat down, keeping a close eye on his younger brother.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

That morning, Alan sat on a worked bench down in the silos, looking at Thunderbird 2 as it was the only Thunderbird out in the open while Thunderbird 1 and 3 were behind the large doors, though he could still see them through the windows. After everything that happened, Alan woke up that morning wondering if it had all been worth it, if all the pain and worry he had caused his family had been worth keeping the Thunderbirds secrets from the Hood.

Looking over the machines now, Alan was struck by how big they were. He remembered the first time he had seen them. He had known some of what was going on, but wasn’t really let in on all the details as his father said he was too young to be down among all the dangerous equipment, but Alan made it his mission to find out. With Fermat’s help, they hacked into the computer and saw the plans, blueprints and everything they were doing. When that happened, though Alan did get a lecture, he was finally allowed down in the silos with his family and so the Thunderbirds for the first time.

He was struck by how big, and magnificent they seemed to be. He had seen how large they were going to be when he read the blueprints, but seeing them in person was completely different. He was filled with wonder and excitement and demanded that his brothers take him on board to show him everything. Laughing at his enthusiasm, they did, answering every and any question he came up with. Ever since then, the yearning to be a part of International Rescue had only gotten stronger, but the awe and wonder had slowly died down after years of being used to it.

Seeing them now though, Alan had his answer. Of course they were worth it. These machines were created to help people, to save peoples lives from danger, whether it be natural or unnatural. If the Hood had gotten a hold of the information on how to create his own Thunderbirds, he wouldn’t have used it help others. He would’ve used it for his own selfish purposes that Alan couldn’t even begin to imagine.

All he did know, was that it wouldn’t be good. He would’ve hurt and possibly killed people in his quest for power. While Alan was glad he didn’t break, and had decided his own pain was worth keeping what he knew secret from the villain, it didn’t really make what was happening to him much easier though, which he had hoped it would.

Alan’s attention was suddenly pulled towards to the elevator door, which was one of the ways to get down to the silos and up to the house, opening. Scott the walked out, looking around the large room before his eyes settled on Alan.

“Hey, there you are.” Scott said with a smile as he started making his way over to Alan, “We were getting worried.”

“Sorry.” Alan apologized, giving his older brother a quick glance before looking down at the ground.

“It’s alright. We’re probably going to be more worried about you than usual for a while.” Scott told him. Seeing the lack of response and the faraway look in his brother’s eyes, he came closer to the bench and asked, “Mind if I sit?”

“Go ahead.” Alan replied quietly. Scott sat down but not right beside his brother, not wanting to get into Alan’s personal space.

“Whatcha doing down here?” Scott wondered, trying to get some dialogue going so maybe, just maybe, his brother would open up to him a little.

“Thinking.” Alan replied.

“About what?” Scott wondered with a casual tone.

“Just, stuff.” Alan said. He knew it was a lame answer, but he couldn’t really bring himself to care. He just simply didn’t want to talk about it, didn’t trust himself with how he’d react once he said it all out loud. With keeping quiet and not letting anyone know what happened, he could try and fool himself into thinking that it never happened at all. Though, with his injuries and with worried glances he kept getting from everyone on the island, those moments were far and few.

“The Hood?” Scott pressed on with a careful-like tone. Alan didn’t respond though, hoping that if he kept his mouth shut, then his oldest brother would drop it.

“I really wish you would talk to us. We just want to help you.”

“Do you? Or do you guys just want something else to use against me?” Alan clamped his mouth shut the second he realized that he actually said what he was thinking out loud, and apparently loud enough that his brother heard him, because Scott immediately turned to face him with a shocked expression.

“Whoa, of course not. What on Earth gave you that idea?” Scott demanded to know. Alan just looked up at him with an expression that clearly read, _really, you really need me to answer that?_

Seeing the look, Scott thought hard for a minute. He couldn’t really think of anything he or the others had done to make Alan think like that. Sure, they would have their pieces of blackmail on each other, mostly used on Gordon and sometimes Alan whenever they were in a particular pranking-like mood, but never would they use something so traumatic and painful against any of them. They never treated Alan terribly, I mean, sure they would tease him and, oh. That was it.

Scott remember back when Alan was 13, and he and Fermat accidentally blew up the chemistry lab. When it happened, first, the entire family was worried about Alan, who had ended up in the hospital with first-degree burns. Luckily, he was okay and released after only one night. Then it was discovered how the explosion happened. Alan had accidentally misread one of the chemicals for his project, which caused an explosive reaction. Not too mention, the teacher who was supposed to be supervising him had up and left because he needed a smoke break, which he wasn’t supposed to do while a student was conducting an experiment.

Ultimately, it was blamed on the teacher, but after the situation was all over, Scott, and the rest of his brothers never let Alan forget it. Since Alan was okay and wasn’t deemed at fault, they thought it was hilarious and constantly brought it up, but whenever they did, they always acted at though it was Alan’s fault. The realization didn’t stop there though. As though a dam had burst, all the times they had teased Alan came flooding back to the former pilot, how all the teasing was about Alan’s mistakes and accidents that happened that wasn’t even his fault. He could now see why Alan was worried that they would use this experience to tease him later, and he was deeply ashamed for it.

Alan, seeing how the deep, thoughtful look on Scott’s face suddenly turned to one of realization as well as shock, turned back to look at the ground. The silence remained though and Alan knew it was because Scott hadn’t figured out how to proceed yet, but he knew it was coming and he wasn’t sure what reaction he would get. It was making him very nervous. He was starting to feel the need to get up and run.

“Allie, you do know that, we don’t mean the crap we joke about, right? You are our brother and we love you, no matter what. We don’t actually think the way we talk, we were just, joking.” Scott tried to assure him, though he himself found the excuse terrible. Since when did they start to think that it was okay to jokingly blame their little brother for accidents that weren’t his fault and could’ve actually killed him. And for the mistakes that Alan had made that they teased him about, well, he was still just a kid. Since when were kids not allowed to make mistakes? The more that Scott thought about, the worse he felt. He would really have to talk to his Dad and other brothers about this.

“I guess.” Alan mumbled with a slight shrug of his shoulders. Seeing the dejected response, Scott slowly put his hand on Alan’s shoulder. Alan tensed for a moment, but not feeling anything really wrong with touch, let it slide and tried to relax.

Again, the two of them slipped into silence, but it wasn’t an easy one like it was before. The teenager could tell that the 25-year-old was still figuring out what to say, which would have been amusing if it wasn’t about him and what he just revealed. Scott wasn’t usually at lost for words. Not wanting to think about it anymore, Alan turned his attention back to the Thunderbirds.

“They’re so big.” Alan stated rather suddenly, breaking Scott out of his thoughts of how to not only help Alan, but also to assure him that he was loved by his family.

“The ‘birds?” Scott questioned, somewhat confused about what his brother was talking about.

“Yeah. Kinda forgot they were so big.” Alan told him. Scott looked up at Thunderbird Two, then over at the Mole and Thunderbird 4. Having been a part of the Thunderbirds since the beginning, watching as they came together, even helping build it, he was so used to them. But to someone who had never seen them, who wasn’t used to them would be taken away by their size. There had been so many times when they went out to a rescue and he saw people, especially kids, looking up at the machines in awe and wonder. Being so used to them, he never really looked at them like that, and apparently, neither did Alan, until now.

“Me too. Guess when you’re so used to something, you forget how big and extraordinary they can be.”

“Alan, is the Thunderbirds somehow involved with what happened with the Hood.”

“How?”

“He, he wanted me to tell him everything I knew about the machinery. How they are made and how they work.” Alan hesitantly answered.

“Did you say anything?” Scott then wondered. It would be understandable if he did. If he was being tortured, he would have been tempted to say anything to get it to stop, but the difference was that one, he was older then Alan and had a higher pain tolerance than the kid. Two, he had training when he was in the military to resist interrogation. Alan was only 15 and had no such training. No child should ever need any training like that whatsoever.

“No. That’s why, that’s why he, and Mullion,” Alan didn’t finish the sentence. He just looked down at his left wrist. The cast was still in place and would be for another few weeks. He could also see the bandage around his hand from the stab wound, which had to be replaced and checked every day to avoid infection, and the bandages on his fingers where his fingernails should be. Scott must have seen what Alan was looking at and put the pieces together because the next thing Alan knew, was that his older brother had wrapped him in his arms, holding him protectively.

“Oh Allie.” Scott whispered as he held his brother tightly, grateful that Alan wasn’t pulling away at all this time, “I’m so sorry you went through that.”

“I never said anything. I promise I didn’t, even after he had Mullion,” Alan tried to tell him, scared that his big brother, his childhood protector and hero might think that he did break and be disappointed in him.

“I know kiddo, I know. If you did, he wouldn’t have contacted Dad to try and get answers from him.” Scott explained, rubbing Alan’s back with his hand as he added, “Besides, I know you. I know you wouldn’t tell.”

Scott suddenly started feeling his shirt become wet, right on the spot where Alan had buried his face in and realized that Alan was crying. Then, he felt the teenager’s smaller hands grip his shirt tightly, or at least, as tight as he could with a broken wrist.

“You’re so brave Sprout, and I’m so proud of you.” Scott whispered in the blonde’s ear, and the tears came more freely, accompanied by the sound of harsh breaths and the brunette tightened his hold even more on his baby brother. With all his heart, he wished he could take Alan’s pain away, but since he couldn’t do that, at least he could comfort his brother while he went through this.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Unfortunately, just like the last few nights, Scott was drawn to his baby brother’s room the second he heard the screams. However, he was with John, Gordon, and Virgil this time when it happened, and considered for their brother as well, the four of them all took off running to Alan.

Pushing the door open, the brothers easily saw Alan tossing on the bed before he went still and a scream forced its way passed his mouth. Scott immediately ran over to wake the teenager, quickly followed by Virgil who wanted to make sure Alan didn’t hurt himself again while John and Gordon grabbed his feet.

“Alan! Wake up! It’s okay!” Scott yelled, easily shaking Alan awake. The blonde suddenly shot up in bed, and looked around the room. Scott and Virgil still had their hands on his shoulders, but weren’t trying to push him down, instead, trying to offer some comfort to their traumatized brother. Same with Gordon and John, keeping at least one of their own hands on Alan’s legs.

“You okay Sprout?” Virgil asked quietly. Alan took a deep breath and nodded. Slowly, the older brothers moved their hands off Alan as they knew he still wasn’t okay with being touched at the moment, but were surprised when the teenager grabbed Scott’s wrist.

“Can, can you guys stay?” Alan wondered, his voice quieter than a mouse. The brothers looked up at each other, the back at him and nodded.

“Of course we can Alan.” John answered with a smile. Gordon immediately ran to get some more pillows and blankets, which he then handed to his older brothers. Scott and John managed to fight themselves on the bed beside Alan while Gordon laid out on the floor and Virgil curled up on the chair.

Jeff came in a few hours later, having found his older sons rooms empty when he went to check on them after a finally finishing some work for Tracy Enterprises. Seeing all of his sons together, Jeff smiled and shut the door, letting them get some sleep.


	14. Still Healing

After that day, and night, the Tracy family and the others on the island began to see a change in Alan. It was a small one, but it was one for the better. He started talking a little more, though still kept whatever happened when he was held by the Hood to himself. He started spending more time with his brothers instead of avoiding them and the light that had always been in the teenager’s bright blue eyes was returning. It was dim compared to what it used to be, but it was better than that empty, terrified, guarded look that he was sporting before.

Alan’s sleeping however had not improved much. He would still scream himself awake in the middle of the night, causing at least one of his brothers to rush to his room and calm him down. Now though, Alan would accept their comfort and the brother who had come would usually stay the night with him. When it became obvious that the nightmares were going to be a reoccurring thing, the four oldest decided to take turns so that the others could get some sleep. They needed it, because only a few days later, their Dad made the decision to start up IR again, with Brains back up on Thunderbird 5 so John could stay and be with his family. It was another week later that John came downstairs to find the kitchen empty, except for Alan who was sitting at the counter alone, a bowl of cereal in front of him.

“Morning.” John greeted at he passed the teenager to get his own breakfast.

“Morning.” Alan replied distractedly. John looked over at him and saw his only blonde brother staring at his left hand, deeply in thought.

“You okay Alan?” John asked, coming to sit across from Alan with his own bowl of cereal. The blonde looked up at him, then raised his limb that was still encased with a cast.

“My hand itches.” Alan complained, glaring at the cast that was making it impossible for him to scratch the spot that was itching like crazy. John gave him a small wince when he heard what was bothering the teenager. He had broken bones before as well, and knew how itching wearing a cast could be at times. It was not fun.

“Yeah, that’ll happen. But, it’s only for two more weeks.” John encouraged his younger brother.

“Feels like forever.” Alan responded though he let his arm rest on the counter yet again.

“It’ll pass sooner than you think.” John told him.

“But, that doesn’t mean you can’t play a good prank on someone.” Gordon said as he suddenly appeared beside his only younger brother, “After all, no one would think you did since you have a cast.”

“You will never change, will you Gordo?” Alan wondered, giving the redhead a small smirk. Though Gordon did a lot of teasing that Alan hated, he always loved how Gordon always seemed to be so happy and full of energy. It was very contagious as whenever he was around others, they were usually smiling as well. Unless of course Gordon had just pulled a prank on them, or was threatening too.

“Why would I do that?” Gordon asked, smiling brightly before he moved his head closer to Alan so he could whisper, “You know, I actually have this one idea, but I do need some help pulling it off. Wanna join forces?”

“Don’t even think about Gordon.” John suddenly broke in, surprising the two youngest Tracy’s. _Honestly, the astronaut had the hearing of a dog,_ Alan thought to himself as John continued, “At least, not until I’m back on Thunderbird 5.”

“But then I’ll have to wait for months before I can prank you.” Gordon whined. He had pulled nearly ever prank he could think of on Scott and Virgil, and occasionally on Alan, but with John gone for long periods of time, he hardly ever knew about the pranks that Gordon had done on his brothers, making it easy for the swimmer to repeat some of his favourites.

“Maybe we should just send you up to space, give the rest of the guys a break from your schemes, and I can stay at home with Alan, Scott and Virgil.” John said after he thought for a moment. It would be nice staying on the island without fear after his shampoo bottle getting switched with hair dye or whatever else Gordon could and would come up with. Gordon however, looked horrified.

“But, I would die of boredom! You wouldn’t do that to me, would you Johnny?” Gordon pleaded, actually sounding as though he was afraid for his life. John gave him an evil grin and raised one eyebrow, but before he could respond, the alarm went off, beeping loudly throughout the house. Someone had called the Thunderbirds.

“Looks like we got a call.” John stated as he got off his seat and rushed out of the room.

“See when we get back Sprout.” Gordon said as he passed Alan, ruffling his mop of blonde hair along the way, then ran after John towards the silos.

“Good luck.” Alan wished them as they disappeared from sight. Once they were gone, he turned back to his breakfast. As he heard the Thunderbirds take off, he pushed the bowl away. For the last year, he had always been involved somehow with what was going on, and before that, he always went and watched them leave and return, but the thought of watching them leave without him, just like they usually did was depressing.

Instead, Alan looked back at his left wrist and hand, examining it. The stitches that had closed up the stab wound had been taken out a few days ago, but was still wrapped as it finished healing. The bandages were still on his fingers, but last he checked, he had seen the beginnings of the new nails growing. Virgil told him it would be another few weeks yet, but soon he would be able to have the bandages off. His wrist was still itching like crazy though. Alan was trying to think of ways to scratch it, maybe he could stick a pencil or something else in between his arm and the cast, when Tin-Tin showed up.

She and Alan had definitely gotten closer over the past year, and even more so when Fermat headed back to school. Before, Tin-Tin had somewhat ignored him whenever he was back on the island. Otherwise, they would usually end up arguing, just like he would with his family, But after what happened with the Hood, she had finally seen the lonely teenager who was always trying to impress and fit in with his family of heroes, or at least, get their attention. And Alan had shown himself to be a good friend to Tin-Tin, being there for her when she found out her uncle was evil, learning to control and use her powers, as well as helping her out with learning about Thunderbirds technology and how to use them since the Malaysian girl had never really been around the machines before.

For the past month, when Alan got back from the hospital, it became clear just how close they were. They had become close friends and confidents to each other. Tin-Tin was surprised at how Alan had been more open with her, trusting her with some of what had happened when he was captured, and how his family teasing and remarks had been making him feel for the last couple of years. She certainly had never expected their friendship to happen over a year ago, but was glad it did.

“Wanna do something?” Tin-Tin asked, seeing the somewhat depressed look on her friend’s face.

“Like what?” Alan wondered, as he looked up at her.

“Head down to the beach?” Tin-Tin suggested. _That could be fun, or at least, better than just sitting around doing nothing_ Alan decided. With his wrist still in a cast, his knee and ribs still healing, along with his concussion, he couldn’t do much of his regular and favourite past times.

“Sure.” Alan replied, then got up off the stool and headed out of the house with Tin-Tin beside him.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Tin-Tin and Alan didn’t return to the house until it was time for lunch. They had walked along the beach for hours, sometimes in silence, other times in conversation. He told her his frustrations at how long it was taking for his injuries to heal, how his family was still somewhat treating him like glass, though he admitted they had gotten better. Tin-Tin told him about how she somewhat felt guilty that he was taken in the first place, as his kidnapper and torturer was her uncle. Alan assured her that he didn’t blame her or was upset with her in any way. They kept walking until Tin-Tin looked down at her watch and realized the time. They quickly headed back up to the house.

“There you two are. We were getting worried.” Onaha said as she spotted the two teenagers coming into the kitchen. Only she and her husband Kyrano were there waiting for the two to come up.

“Sorry Mom.” Tin-Tin apologized as she gave her mother a quick peck on her cheek, then grabbed her plate and headed to the table. Alan on the other hand, looked around the room and noticed it was practically empty.

“Are the guys still gone?” Alan asked the two adults.

“Yes. There has been a massive earthquake in San Francisco. It might be a while before they get back.” Kyrano informed him, going to sit beside his daughter at the table.

“Here, you need to eat.” Onaha said as she handed him a plate of food before he could respond to Kyrano.

“Thanks Onaha.” Alan responded, giving the woman a small smile, then joined his friend and her father at the table.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Alan didn’t see any of his family for the rest of the day. He knew that a rescue could take a while depending on what had happened and how many people needed help, but he had hardly seen a rescue take this long. By the time supper rolled around, his brothers were still gone and his Dad didn’t come down. Instead, Onaha went up to the command center with a plate for the Tracy Patriarch. When it was getting close to midnight, Alan finally went up to see his Dad and make sure that nothing had happened to his brothers.

“Dad?” Alan called out quietly as he came into the room, quickly getting his father’s attention.

“Alan, what’s wrong?” Jeff immediately questioned once he saw the worried expression on his youngest’s face.

“Nothing, just, the guys aren’t back yet. Is everything okay?” Alan wondered, looking around the room, feeling a little uneasy at having his father’s full attention. He hardly ever had that, and when he did, it was usually because his Dad was mad at him for something.

“Everything’s fine. There was just a lot of damage, and your brothers are just having a hard time digging through it all to get to the people who are trapped.” Jeff explained, quickly calming down when he realized what Alan was worried about, then mentally kicked himself. He had been so busy helping out from the command center, he hadn’t even thought about Alan. _Story of my life_ , Jeff thought to himself.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Alan wondered, hoping that he could still be useful to his family even though he was still injured. Jeff looked around, trying to think of something that his youngest could do, but came up with nothing. Usually, being in the command center during a rescue was only a one person job.

“I think we’re okay. Thanks though.” Jeff answered, giving the blonde a small smile. Alan nodded, but didn’t respond, or move. Jeff took that time to examine his son. There were dark circles under his eyes, which was common when you didn’t get much sleep. Seeing that, Jeff glanced at the clock at saw that it was almost 11 at night.

“You know, it’s late. You should probably get some sleep.” Jeff told him. Instead of getting defensive like he usually did, Alan only nodded.

“Okay. Let me know if anything happens.” Alan requested, somewhat turning to head out of the room, but didn’t actually move as he was waiting for his father’s response.

“I will Alan. Good night.” Jeff promised the teenager.

“Night.” Alan replied, then walked away, shutting the door behind him. Jeff stared at the closed door for a minute before turning back to the screens.

Jeff was worried about Alan. Being a father he was always worried about his sons, though it varied depending on the situation, and right now, his youngest was the one who had all of his attention and worry. Even though Alan had been getting better, and had been getting closer to his brothers again, he still remained distant to the father.

Scott had told him about what Alan had revealed that morning about a week ago when they were talking in the silos by the Thunderbirds. Jeff had known that Alan didn’t like his brothers teasing him, and that the boys did go too far every now and then, but he had no idea exactly how much it had been hurting him, about how it had been making him feel. It was obvious to the former astronaut that he and Scott would have to talk to the other three about it, but it was also becoming clear that Alan needed more help than they all thought, maybe even more than they could give him.

Though he wasn’t fond of the idea of taking his son to a complete stranger that they didn’t know, didn’t trust, and talking about his problems with his family and personal life, Jeff found his eyes constantly being drawn to the number on the slip of paper on his desk where he put it when they brought Alan home from the hospital.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

It was nearly three in the morning when the Thunderbirds were finally done with helping clear out the wreckage in San Francisco and saving as many lives as they could while they were at it. Even though it was late, Jeff remembered his promise to Alan, and started walking down to his son’s room. If Alan was still awake, then he would let him know that his brothers were alright and were on their way back. If not, Jeff would leave a note on his bedside table and let him sleep.

As he approached the door however, he heard noise coming from the room. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but it sounded like mumbling, and gasping. Whatever it was though, it quickly unsettled Jeff.

“Alan?” Jeff said as he knocked on the door, still unsure of how exactly to approach his youngest right now. When he heard a loud scream however, he opened the door and ran inside to see the blonde tangled in his blanket, sweating and screaming in his sleep. Jeff rushed over, grabbed his good arm and tired to wake him up.

“Alan! Wake up!” Alan’s eyes shot open wide, terror completely exposed in them. Jeff helped him sit up while he also sat down on the edge of the bed, keeping an arm around the teenager’s shoulders as he said, “It’s okay, it’s alright, it was just a nightmare.”

“Dad?” Alan said with such a scared tone, that Jeff immediately pulled his boy into his arms and held on tightly, beyond grateful that Alan didn’t fight him or pull away. The teenager just sunk into the embrace, resting his head against his father’s chest as tears started running down his cheeks.

“I’m here. It’s okay, you’re safe now. You’re safe.” Jeff whispered comfortingly, slowly rocking the blonde in his arms.

“It never stops. Why won’t it stop?” Alan asked with desperation. He was so tired of the dreams, of the memories. During the day, he would always feel better, but the nightmares during the night kept trying to drag him back down into the dark hole he was in before. He never wanted to go there again, but he was so tired. So tired of it all.

“The nightmares?” Jeff questioned gently, then felt Alan nod against his chest. Jeff sighed and tightened his hold on his son a little.

“They will Alan, they will. It might take a while, but they will.” Jeff assured him.

“They didn’t last time.” Alan revealed. Jeff froze when he heard that. He knew that Alan had a nightmares for a few weeks after the Hood attacked them last year, and knew that he had them again when spring break had been approaching, but had Alan actually been having throughout the entire year?

“Not even for a little bit?” Jeff asked.

“Well, yeah, but they always came back.” Alan responded, moving even closer to his Dad, squeezing his shirt in his good hand as he whispered, “I can’t do this.”

Jeff felt his heart break at those words. Once Alan had gotten them out, he fell into full out sobs and Jeff resumed the rocking motion he had been doing before. He shouldn’t have been surprised at his son’s breakdown. If he had still been struggling with the Hood’s attack last year, then being kidnapped and tortured by him would most certainly break him. He shouldn’t be dealing with this, he was only 15 years old and already he had been through more trauma than others twice his age. And to top it all off, Jeff hadn’t even noticed how much his baby had been struggling with all of it.

“It’s okay Alan, it’s okay.” Jeff repeated his earlier words, unsure of what else to say or do to comfort his son. He just continued holding Alan tightly in his arms as the tears kept running freely down from his cheeks.

They sat like that for what felt like hours, though was probably only 20 minutes, maybe closer to half an hour, but neither pulled away. Alan needed to let the tears fall and Jeff wasn’t going to let him do that alone. He hadn’t been there for his baby so many times in his young life, and wasn’t willing leave him to his own devices anymore, nor was he going to just let/make Scott take care of him. While he greatly appreciated Scott, as well as John and Virgil take care of the younger two, he was still their father and he knew that he should’ve been the one taking care of them. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

“I’m so sorry.” Jeff apologized once Alan’s sobs had subsided.

“For what?” Alan questioned, his voice quiet and rough from the crying. Seeing the tears and running nose, Jeff reached over and grabbed the tissue box from the table beside the bed and handed it to Alan who immediately started wiping his eyes and nose.

“For everything. For not listening to you, for always losing my temper, for sending you away to school without knowing what all was going on. For not being there for you.” Jeff answered, looking down at his son, hoping he could see just how sorry he was. Alan stared at him for a minute, before looking down and grabbing another tissue to wipe his nose.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were struggling with what all happened last year?” Jeff asked once he was sure Alan was done with the Kleenex. Alan just shrugged before replying, “None of you guys were. And, I thought it was just a fluke kind of thing, you know?”

“Alan, trust me, we’ve been struggling with what happened too, just, in different ways.” When Jeff revealed that, Alan’s eyes shot up at him in surprise. Jeff then went on to explain.

“We’ve added another room on Thunderbird 5 that can support life for up to a week in case it’s ever attacked or damaged again, upgraded all of the island’s security, and you know what? We still have nightmares and get scared that the Hood, or someone else could come attack and kill us all.”

“You do?” Alan’s shock was evident in his tone and his expressive blue eyes.

“Of course we do. Despite what you may think Alan, we aren’t fearless, nor are we flawless.” Jeff almost smiled at the realization how his son viewed them. The idea that his son saw them as perfect heroes and held them so high on a pedestal was adorable, but at the same time, Jeff realized just how much that belief had cost their family, had cost Alan. It alienated the youngest away from his family out of fear that they would be disappointed in him, made him feel like he had to live up to them.

“We should’ve made sure you knew that. That you didn’t have to act strong just to impress us. You already have, so much. I’m proud of you Alan, so are your brothers.” Jeff told him sincerely. Slowly, Alan smiled as tears began prickling the corners of his eyes again. For so long he wanted to hear those words, he wondered if he ever would.

“I love you Dad.” Alan said as he threw his arms around his father who was quick to return the embrace.

“I love you too Allie, so much.” Jeff repeated back to him, then pressed a quick kiss on the top of Alan’s head. This hug didn’t last as long as the other, but was still just as comforting and heartfelt. Alan only pulled away to get some more tissues to wipe his new tears and his still runny nose. When he looked back at his Dad, he saw a strange expression on the adult’s face. It was a mix of thoughtful consideration and hesitance, as though there was something he wasn’t sure he should say or not.

“What?” Alan asked, wanting to know what his Dad was thinking. The adult stared at him for a moment, still deciding whether or not to say anything before finally coming to a decision.

“Well, there’s something I want to run by you.” Jeff said slowly, still unsure if he should bring up this subject right now. Alan nodded though, clearly waiting for him to continue.

“When you were in the hospital, Dr. Davis gave me the number to a psychologist who deals specially with kidnapped victims.” Instantly, Alan shrank back from him. Jeff however put his hand on the blonde’s shoulder and said, “No Alan, this is your choice.”

“What? You’re not going to force me to go?” Alan wondered, clearly shocked at that bit of information. Jeff shook his head and gave him a small smile.

“No. Whatever happened, whatever’s going on in your mind, I want to help you, so do your brothers, and your friends. But I don’t think we really know how. This doctor might though.” Jeff explained. Alan nodded and stayed quiet while he processed what he had just been told.

“What about the Thunderbirds?” Alan finally asked, “That’s why I was taken, how do I explain that?”

Jeff sighed as he rubbed Alan’s arm and said, “I don’t know, but I really think that it would be good for you to at least try it.”

“I don’t know Dad.” Alan replied after another long moment of silence. Jeff nodded his head and pulled the teenager closer to him again.

“It’s okay, it’s just an idea. You can think about it all you want. It’s your decision Alan. I’m not going to make you go. I just want to help you.” Jeff told him. Alan again rested against his father, relishing in the feeling of safety and comfort. Before he knew it, he drifted off to sleep. It took Jeff a few seconds to realize that Alan’s breathing had evened out, and he glanced down at the teenager.

“Alan?” Jeff whispered, not wanting to wake Alan if he actually had fallen asleep. When the teenager didn’t move or give a response of any kind, Jeff gently lowered Alan down on the bed, then pulled the blanket over his sleeping figure.

“Dad?” Jeff whipped his head at the sudden sound. There in the doorway, stood John, who was slowly making his way into the room. Jeff relaxed when he saw who it was before fully turning to face his second eldest.

“Hey, you guys get back okay?” Jeff wondered.

“Yeah. Is Allie alright?” John asked coming to stand beside the bed and his father, looking down at the sleeping teenager.

“I think so. I told him about the possibility of seeing a psychologist.” Jeff told him, causing the older blonde to look up at him. Their Dad had told him, Scott, Virgil, and Gordon about how he had been thinking of taking the youngest to get some counselling when the nightmares had started. While they all thought it could be a good idea, they weren’t sure how Alan would feel about it, nor were they particularly comfortable with letting Alan out of their sight.

“How did he take it?” John wondered, watching his Dad for every tell he could see to figure out exactly what all happened while they were gone.

“Not fully sure yet, though he was surprised when I told him that it was his choice. He thought I was going to force him.” Jeff revealed, then said, “I’ll let him think about it for a couple of days, and ask again.”

“What if he never gets better?” John wondered with a slightly fearful voice. While he understood that it could take a while for Alan to heal from what all happened to him, he was beginning to get worried that his little brother would never recover. As much as Jeff wished he could assure the fellow astronaut, he would easily be able to tell that he was just lying to make him feel better.

“I don’t know. If I force him to go, that might just make him distance himself from me further than he already is. That is the last thing I want.” Jeff answered, tearing his gaze from John and laying it on Alan, who was still sleeping peacefully.

“We’ll just take it one day at a time.” Jeff added, hoping to give his other son some sort of comfort, clapping him gently on his shoulder. John nodded but kept his eyes on his brother. Jeff looked over at the older blonde, easily seeing how exhausted he was with not only helping his brothers watch Alan, but also from the mission he had just returned from.

“Why don’t you go to bed, I’ll stay with Alan tonight.” Jeff offered, quickly getting John’s attention yet again.

“Are you sure?” John questioned. While he was indeed exhausted, it was technically his turn to watch Alan tonight and his Dad had meetings in the morning and needed his rest as well. The Tracy patriarch nodded.

“Yes I am. I’ll see you in the morning.” Jeff replied, sitting down in Alan’s desk chair that had been moved to the bedside a while ago by one of his sons.

“Okay, good night.” John said, giving Alan one last glance before he started making his way out of the room.

“Good night.” Jeff said back to him. He waited until John closed the door before turning back to Alan, who had not moved or made any noise whatsoever, still sound asleep despite the conversation his Dad and brother were just having.

“It’s going to be okay Allie. It’s going to be okay.” Jeff whispered as he grabbed Alan’s good hand and held it in both of his. Soon, he drifted off to sleep himself, still holding his son’s hand in his all throughout the night.


	15. Epilogue

Two weeks to the day, Alan sat in the infirmary as Virgil used a special saw to cut the cast off of his wrist. He spent the majority of the day there as the medic of the family wanted to make sure that his wrist was fully healed, then proceeded to show him all the exercises he wanted the teenager to do to get strength back in his left wrist. Virgil also checked how his ribs and knee was healing, along with the stab wound in his hand. They only took a break for mealtimes and by the time Virgil finally finished all the tests and exercises, the sun was beginning to set.

Feeling claustrophobic since he was stuck in the house all day, Alan started making his down to the beach. He had been heading down there a lot more lately. It had become a refuge for when his brothers and Dad were smothering him or he just wanted to be alone and think. The last two weeks, his thoughts were mostly on the idea of going to see a psychologist. While he thought that it could be a good idea, especially if it would help the nightmares that continued to plague him stop. But he still had his doubts.

Alan was expecting the beach to be abandoned, like it usually always was, but was surprised by the sight of Tin-Tin sitting down watching the sunset. She must’ve heard him because she turned her head to look over her shoulder, quickly seeing him.

“Hey, haven’t seen you around all day.” Tin-Tin said as Alan continued walking towards her, then sat down on the sand right beside her.

“Yeah, my brothers kept me busy. But, look at this.” Alan told her, and he lifted his left arm high enough so she could see that the cast was now gone.

“Nice, how does it feel?” Tin-Tin asked with a smile. She knew how frustrated Alan had been feeling with a cast on his arm and had been looking forward to getting it off for weeks.

“Feels really good to scratch my hand and arm again.” Alan replied, smiling back at her as he scratched his wrist just for sake of it.

“That’s good. Hey, it’s smaller than your other arm.” Tin-Tin noticed as she examined his arm. Alan looked down at it and nodded.

“Yeah, Virgil said it’s because the muscles haven’t been used so they’ve shrunk. It’s gonna be a few weeks before its back to its normal size.” Alan explained, letting his arm drop onto his lap. The two teenagers sat quietly for a few minutes, both staring at the sunset.

“I want to thank you.” Alan said, keeping his eyes on the horizon.

“For what?” Tin-Tin wondered, turning her attention over to him.

“For being there for me during the last few weeks.” Alan replied, looking back at the young woman, “I don’t know what I would’ve done if it wasn’t for you and Fermat.”

“No problem. I just hope that now, maybe your Dad and brothers will learn to actually be there for you as well.” Tin-Tin murmured.

“Maybe. I still don’t really trust them.” Alan admitted, looking doing at his lap.

“Well, trust is earned. Give them time, just like they are giving you time.” Tin-Tin advised her friend, placing her hand on Alan’s back gently to comfort him. When he didn’t flinch, she left it there.

“My Dad thinks I should see a psychologist.” Alan revealed. He had been keeping it to himself ever since his Dad mentioned it that night, trying to decide what he wanted to do, but he couldn’t make up his mind. Maybe Tin-Tin would be able to help.

“What do you think?” Tin-Tin asked, keeping her eyes on him.

“I think that the main reason I was kidnapped was because of IR and I would have no idea how to explain that.” Alan responded.

“You could just say it had to do with the family business and you can’t talk about it.” Tin-Tin suggested.

“True.” Tin-Tin didn’t say anything for a minute, instead, choosing to stare at her friend. There was a strange look on his face, but she couldn’t really place it. It definitely looked like he was having a hard time making up his mind, but she didn’t really know why.

“Do you want to go?” Tin-Tin inquired.

“If it would help the nightmares finally stop and get rid of this heavy weight in my chest, then, yeah, I think I do. It’s just,” Alan broke off, keeping his head down so Tin-Tin couldn’t see the fear in his eyes. 

“Just what?” Tin-Tin probed, wanting to know what was going on with the blonde so she could help him.

“Does going to a psychologist make me weak?” Alan blurted out, finally raising his head to look at her,

“What? No, of course not!” Tin-Tin immediately protested in a shocked and angry tone. When Alan flinched at the harshness of her tone, she took a second to collect herself and continued in gentler tone, “Sometimes, it takes more strength to ask for help, then to shoulder everything yourself. There is absolutely no shame in asking for help.”

“Really?” Alan somewhat pleaded, fear in his eyes, as if he was terrified that she wasn’t telling the truth, that he really was being weak. Tin-Tin moved her hand that was still on his back to wrap her arm around his shoulders.

“Really. Alan, you are probably one of the strongest people I know. You have been through so much through your life, especially over the last year, and the fact that you are still trying to move forward is amazing.” Tin-Tin tried to get him to believe. For a moment, Alan just stared at her, like he was seeing something or noticing that he hadn’t seen or noticed before.

“What?” Tin-Tin asked. Alan didn’t say anything. Instead, he leaned forward and kissed her. Tin-Tin was so surprised, she didn’t respond. Alan though quickly pulled away.

“Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” Alan immediately apologized. Tin-Tin however, lifted her other hand to place on Alan’s opposite cheek and turned his head to face her.

“Took you long enough.” Tin-Tin stated with a smile, then leaned forward to kiss him, which he returned.

**TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB**

Inside the house, Jeff was in his office yet again. He had taken time off work when he discovered that Alan had been kidnapped and throughout his recovery. However, he started again in the last week, knowing that since he was the head of the entire company, he couldn’t stay off work forever. Once he started working again, he spent most of his time in his office, trying to catch up on what he all missed, usually starting early and going late into the night.

After having been sitting down in his chair for at least three hours, Jeff stood up and walked to the window overlooking the beach and ocean, stretching his muscles as he went. The sun was close to setting, hovering just over water turning the sky shades of red, orange and purple. When Jeff looked down towards the beach, he saw two figures sitting by the water. He grabbed the binoculars he kept on one of the tables for whenever he wanted to look at something out the window, and used it to see who or what was there.

Jeff easily saw that it was his son and Tin-Tin, and for a moment, he just watched. He was glad that Alan and Tin-Tin had finally gotten along. When she and her parents first came to the island, they couldn’t really be in the same room by themselves for long before they’d start fighting. After the Hood attacked the island last year, they had gotten a lot closer. As Jeff continued watching, he was surprised to the two were now actually kissing. Guess they had gotten a lot closer than he thought.

“Guess Penny was right, as always.” Jeff muttered to himself with an amused grin. He put the binoculars down on the table and was about to head down to the kitchen to get another cup off coffee to prepare himself for another late night of work when his cell phone on his desk started ringing. He quickly headed back to his desk and picked up the phone, smiling even more when he saw who was calling.

“Penny, what a coincidence, I was just thinking about you.” Jeff answered.

_“That’s sweet of you Jeff. How’s Alan?”_ Penny questioned. She had been so busy helping out the FBI and MI6 with the Hood and his two associates, she hadn’t had time to come out personally to visit the Tracy family but had called several times wanting to know how they have been doing, especially Alan.

“He’s doing better, still has a long way to go, but he’s tough.” Jeff replied. He waited for Penny to say something, but she was completely silent.

“Penny? What is it?” Jeff asked, beginning to get worried by Penny’s lack of response.

_“Jeff, the prison transport that was bringing the Hood back to England was attacked. All the guards were killed. The Hood is gone.”_ Jeff his blood completely froze as he processed what British aristocrat just revealed and ran back to the window, relaxing only slightly when he saw that Alan and Tin-Tin were still on the beach.

“Find him Penny. I’m not letting him hurt my family again.” Jeff told her. The Hood had put his family, put Alan through so much already, he couldn’t risk the man coming after them again.

_“I will. I promise Jeff.”_ Penny replied. Jeff then hung up the phone, but kept his eyes on the two figures on the beach watching the sunset, blissfully unaware of the possible danger that they were all now in.


	16. Epilogue Pt 2 and Announcement

The next day, Jeff asked his four oldest sons to meet him in his office under the guise of needing to talk about IR. In reality, he wanted to talk to them about the Hood. So far, he hadn’t told anyone about the phone call from Penny about the Hood’s second escape from prison and he hadn’t planned on it yet but last night, Alan told him that he was willing to try therapy. Jeff was relieved and proud of his youngest’s decision, but it also worried him. With the Hood being free, there was a chance he might go after Alan again and that terrified Jeff. That was when he decided that his older four boys needed to be aware of what was going on.

“What’s going on Dad?” Scott asked as he walked into the office, followed by John, Virgil and Gordon.

“Shut the door please.” Jeff told his second youngest son, not wanting to answer his oldest’s question until he was sure they had some privacy. Gordon frowned, but did as he was ordered.

“What’s wrong?” John questioned, growing worried about his father’s behaviour.

“Everything I tell you boys, doesn’t leave this room. Got it?” Jeff told them using his commander voice. Realizing that whatever their father wanted to discuss was serious, all four of them wordlessly nodded and waited for the parent to continue.

“Penny called me yesterday. The Hood escaped, again.” Immediately the room erupted into shouts.

“What!”

“How?”

“Do they know where he is?”

“Quiet down! I don’t want anyone to hear us, especially not Alan.” Jeff told them, which shocked the four into silence.

“What? You’re not going to tell Alan?” Scott couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His couldn’t be serious.

“No, I’m not.” Before his son’s could argue with him, he raised a hand, slightly telling them to remain quiet as he continued, “Alan has decided to go to therapy, and if he finds out about the Hood, he’ll change his mind. He’ll regress back to how he was when he first came home. I don’t want that to happen.”

After a few seconds of silence, Virgil said, “Dad, I get that. None of us want to go back to how it was when Alan came home from the hospital. But doesn’t he have a right to know about this? If he finds out the Hood escaped, and that we knew and didn’t tell him, he’ll be so mad at us.”

“Is it even safe for Alan to go to therapy? To leave the island?” Scott wondering, not at all liking the idea of his baby brother being put in danger, especially after everything he had been through.

“The island’s not a fortress Scott. The Hood has attacked us here too you know.” John reminded his older brother.

“It’s safer than out on the mainland, where the Hood or his minions could be anywhere.” Scott responded.

“I agree with Scott.” Gordon chimed in.

Before the argument could get out of hand, Jeff said, “Boys, that’s enough. Alan is going to go to therapy, but not only will one of us be with him, they’ll be a security detail with him at all times. And except therapy, he’ll stay on the island.”

“If you’re not going to tell Alan about the Hood, how are you going to explain the security?” John inquired.

“I’ll tell him it’s because of paparazzi.” Jeff quickly answered, having already thought about that. He knew that it would be a plausible reason, one that Alan would easily believe. Whenever any of them were in New York or any other major city, they were always followed by reporters and paparazzi. And since the public were well aware of Alan’s kidnapping and he hadn’t been seen, none of the Tracy’s have been seen, since they took him home from the hospital, odds were that they’d be followed by them the second word leaked out that they were back on the mainland. From the looks on his sons’ faces, he knew that they also knew that that reason made sense.

“Okay, but what about when school starts?” Virgil questioned. “He’s starting to work on the schoolwork he’s missed. He’s a smart kid, he’ll catch up soon. And then what?”

“By then, the Hood should be caught and back in prison where he belongs.” Jeff told them.

“And if he isn’t?” Scott asked.

“Then I’ll,” Jeff paused, trying to come up with an answer, then said, “I’ll tell him that he can do his schooling online. He’s been wanting to do that for a while now.”

“Okay. That might work for a little while, but what if the police never find the Hood? We can’t keep him locked up on the island forever.” Gordon pointed out.

“We’ll cross that bridge when and if we come to it. For now though, this is what we’re going to do.” Jeff replied.

Shaking his head, Virgil said, “This seems like a really bad idea Dad.”

Judging from the expressions, Jeff could see that the other three agreed with his middle son. However, he had already made up his mind.

“This is what we are going to do. If anything happens, if anything changes, anything important, then we’ll tell him what’s going on. For now, we focus on keeping him safe and helping him recover. That’s all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So next week, on Monday, I will post the first chapter of the sequel! It's called Little Boy Found if you guys want to check it out. Hope you all liked this story!

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not 100% sure about the age differences in the movie version, so I’m putting Scott at 25, John at 23, Virgil at 22, Gordon at 20, Alan and Tin-Tin at 15, and Fermat at 13. Hope you guys liked the first chapter of my first Thunderbirds story!


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